Information warfare
Encyclopedia : I : IN : INF : Information warfare
|
|
|---|
| History of Warfare |
| Eras |
| Prehistoric · Ancient · Medieval · Gunpowder · Industrial · Modern |
| Battlespace |
| Air · Information · Land · Sea · Space |
| Theaters |
| Arctic · Desert · Jungle · Mountain · Urban |
| Weapons |
| Armoured · Artillery · Biological · Cavalry · Chemical · Electronic · Infantry · Mechanized · Nuclear · Psychological · Radiological · Ski · Submarine |
| Tactics |
|
Amphibious · Asymmetric · Attrition · Conventional · Fortification · Guerrilla · Hand to hand · Invasion · Maneuver · Siege · Total · Trench · Unconventional |
| Lists |
| Battles · Civil wars · Commanders · Invasions · Operations · Sieges · Tactics · Wars |
Information warfare is the use and management of information in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent. Information warfare may involve collection of tactical information, assurance that one's own information is valid, spreading of propaganda or disinformation among the enemy, undermining the quality of opposing force information and denial of information collection opportunities to opposing forces.
Overview
Information warfare can take many forms:- Television and radio transmission can be jammed.
- Television and radio transmission can be hijacked for a disinformation campaign
- Logistics networks can be disabled.
- Stock exchanges transactions can be sabotaged either with electronic intervention, leaking sensitive information or placing disinformation.
Origins
Information about own forces, allied forces and opposing forces has always been a key feature of military operations, discussed in Sun Tzu's ''The Art of War:
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
Nations, corporations, and individuals each seek to increase, protect and exploit their own information while trying to limit and penetrate the adversary's. Methods to collect, store, analyse and exploit information cover the whole range of both military and commercial activities and whilst this discussion is related to the military applicaiton of the discipline these methods legitimately apply in the commercial environment.
Since the 1960s, there have been extraordinary improvements in the technical means of transmission, protection, collection, storage and analysis which have allowed significant improvements in the exploitation of the information domain.
Information Wars and 9/11
Many 9/11 researchers (notably Mark Robinowitz) have accused some other popular 9/11 conspiracy sites of fostering outlandish conspiracy theories as disinformation meant to discredit and distract the 9/11 Truth Movement.[link] If true and deliberate, such an operation would be an example of information warfare.
See also
- Information Operations Roadmap
- Communications security
- Command and control warfare
- Gatekeeper (politics) Left Gatekeepers
- 9/11 Truth Movement
- Disinformation
- Black propaganda
- Network-centric warfare
References
- [Science at War: Information Warfare], The History Channel
- Arquilla, J. & Rondfeldt, D. In Athena's Camp, RAND 1997
- Arquilla, J. & Rondfeldt, D. Networks and Netwars, RAND 2001
- Winn Schwartau, ed, Information Warfare: Cyberterrorism: Protecting your personal security in the electronic age, Thunder's Mouth Press, 2nd ed, 1996, ISBN 156025-132-8
- James Adams, The Next World War: Computers are the Weapons and the Front line is Everywhere, Simon and Schuster, 1998, ISBN 0-684-83452-9
- Edward Waltz, Information Warfare Principles and Operations, Artech House, 1998, ISBN 0-89006-511-X
News item
- "America's war on the web", 02 April 2006, information warfare escalation The Information Operations Roadmap , commissioned by Donald Rumsfeld, http://www.sundayherald.com/54975
External links
Resources
- [IWS - The Information Warfare Site]
- [The Information Warfare Monitor]
- [Information Warfare, I-War, IW, C4I, Cyberwar]
- [Federation of American Scientists - IW Resources]
- Association of Old Crows http://www.myaoc.org The Electronic Warfare and Information Operations Association
- [C4I.org - Computer Security & Intelligence]
- [oilempire.us Identifying Misinformation - Mark Robinowitz]
- [INFOWARS.com - Political Information Warfare site]
US Department of Defense IO Doctrine
- [Information Operations Roadmap (DOD 2003)]
- [Information Operations (JP 3-13 2006)]
- [Joint Doctrine for PSYOPS (JP 3-53 2003)]
- [Joint Doctrine for Public Affairs (JP 3-61 2005)]
Counterterrorism
- [Destabilizing Terrorist Networks: Disrupting and Manipulating Information Flows in the Global War on Terrorism]
- [Seeking Symmetry in Fourth Generation Warfare: Information Operations in the War of Ideas]
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.