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Cyber Warfare

Study Guide

International policy and concerns

   'Today’s weapon of choice for terrorists remains the AK-47, the car bomb, and the rocket. But terrorists looking for a bigger impact will increasingly turn to weapons of mass destruction and cyberterrorism.'

Ambassador Michael Sheehan, US Coordinator for Counterterrorism

The new rules of war

Much comment has been made about the ethics of cyber warfare, or disabling an enemy's resources or information through malicious use of a computer. The United States Government is quickly adapting its policy and trying to become a cyber-warfare superpower while also making sure that they don't violate the civil liberties of both citizens and non-citizens. It seems that the definition of the enemy has become blurred. While it is generally accepted that the government is able to spy on any data transmitted over the net, much debate remains over whether this is ethical. September 11th left us all crying for better surveillance against the "bad guys." In order to appease various civil liberties groups in the U.S. dealings in cyber espionage and warfare have been somewhat "under the table," until now. It will be interesting to see whether American's will be willing to forego privacy in the interest of security.

Surveillance and September 11th

Is it ethical for the U.S. to spy on suspected terrorists? Should the U.S. have been able to reconstruct cellular phone calls from that fatal crash on September 11th? Are we glad that we had the ability to do this? Does this scare anyone? Many issues such as this will have to be resolved in order to move forward as a country in the coming months.