Posted on May 10, 2023
Lifting the Veil: Cyber Insight for the Conventional Warfighter
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In 2011, retired Air Force General Michael Hayden asserted that rarely has anything been so important and so talked about with less clarity and less apparent understanding than cyber. Today, little has changed from a conventional warfighter’s perspective.
A wide array of objectives encompasses the term “cyber,” but the focus here will go toward the most practical application to the conventional warfighter—cyber effect operations (CEOs). One definition of CEO is a cyber operation with an aim to disrupt, deny, degrade, and/or destroy a target device, system, or network.1 This is likely the type of operation most people envision when they hear the term cyber; a computer hacker from across the globe disabling an adversary’s device.
A wide array of objectives encompasses the term “cyber,” but the focus here will go toward the most practical application to the conventional warfighter—cyber effect operations (CEOs). One definition of CEO is a cyber operation with an aim to disrupt, deny, degrade, and/or destroy a target device, system, or network.1 This is likely the type of operation most people envision when they hear the term cyber; a computer hacker from across the globe disabling an adversary’s device.
Lifting the Veil: Cyber Insight for the Conventional Warfighter
Posted from usni.org
Cyber
Hacking
Computers
Posted 1 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Cyber Impacts
Smeets details another significant challenge: “Causing any type of cyber effect, against any system or computer network, at an unspecific point in time, lacking strategic purpose, is easy. Causing a specific, targeted cyber effect, at a designated point in time, which achieves a strategic purpose, and outweighs the impact of negative consequences, is hard.” Like any strategic warfare effect, the use of CEO must be a means to a political end.10
Erik Gartzke states, “The inherent difficulty of credibly threatening cyberattacks without also compromising operational effectiveness means they are generally an inferior substitute to conventional warfare in performing the functions of coercion or conquest.” Threatening an adversary with a CEO shows our hand and allows an opportunity to mitigate the threatened network.
Anticipating target response is important for decision makers to understand potential outcomes of a CEO. This is difficult to predict due to various factors if the end state is to induce some level or coercion, leading to several possible outcomes:"...
..."Cyber Impacts
Smeets details another significant challenge: “Causing any type of cyber effect, against any system or computer network, at an unspecific point in time, lacking strategic purpose, is easy. Causing a specific, targeted cyber effect, at a designated point in time, which achieves a strategic purpose, and outweighs the impact of negative consequences, is hard.” Like any strategic warfare effect, the use of CEO must be a means to a political end.10
Erik Gartzke states, “The inherent difficulty of credibly threatening cyberattacks without also compromising operational effectiveness means they are generally an inferior substitute to conventional warfare in performing the functions of coercion or conquest.” Threatening an adversary with a CEO shows our hand and allows an opportunity to mitigate the threatened network.
Anticipating target response is important for decision makers to understand potential outcomes of a CEO. This is difficult to predict due to various factors if the end state is to induce some level or coercion, leading to several possible outcomes:"...
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