Relation Of Information Warfare To Other Similar Types Of Warfare

Relation Of Information Warfare To Other Similar Types Of Warfare Presented by: Prof. Groš Date:8 March 2024 The Goal Of This Presentation - I want to present some key aspects of the chapter I was working on and, hopefully, provoke some discussions. - Key aspects I cover in this presentation: • Concept of warfare • Information warfare • Relationship of information warfare to other types of (similar) warfare • Cyber warfare and information warfare Concept of Warfare - The term warfare is a more technical than legal term, and it refers to the activity of fighting a war, including the weapons and methods that are used. • In other words, warfare encompasses tactics and techniques available for use in a war. - The consequence of this definition is that we must define tactics and techniques of whatever we are treating as warfare - Note also that tactics and techniques can be used outside war conditions as well - MITRE ATT&CK pattern showed to be very useful in cyber domain Information Warfare - We define information warfare as a set of tactics and techniques that support (dis)information lifecycle. - Disinformation lifecycle consists of four phases (tactics): (i) generation, (ii) production, (iii) publication, and (iv) dissemination. - We EXPLICITLY don't care about WHY disinformation was created, nor HOW it affects targets! • This is like information security which takes care about security of information (data?) but doesn't go into information meaning! Information Operations - Information operations are a sequence of tactical steps to achieve specific objective • - In general, any warfare type has operations that combine tactical steps Information operations are controlled by information operations operator, or shortly operator - In the following slides I'm mixing information warfare and information operation, but they are distinct and from context it should be clear what is the exact meaning Other Related Types of Warfare - There are many different types of warfare, real and marketing ones! - We are particularly interested in the ones that also have information in their core - they are related to information warfare • Psychological warfare • Cognitive warfare • Political warfare • Propaganda • Disinformation warfare • Cyber warfare • EM warfare • Social media warfare Relationship Between Warfare Types - We classify all the mentioned warfare types into three relationships • Uses information warfare - information warfare operation is a technique of some other warfare • Used by information warfare - information operation technique is implemented as an operation of some other warfare • Subset of information warfare - contains only a subset of tactics and techniques of information warfare - Uses information warfare - psychological warfare, cognitive warfare, political warfare, propaganda - Used by information warfare - cyber warfare, EM warfare, social media warfare - Subset of information warfare - disinformation warfare Uses Information Warfare - Uses information warfare - psychological warfare, cognitive warfare, political warfare, propaganda - Each type of warfare that uses information warfare defines content of the information necessary to achieve consequences • E.g. psychological warfare, based on desired outcomes and knowing human psychology defines WHAT should be served to WHOM (target group) and WHY. - Defined content is then handed to information operation operators that, based on target group and potentially other parameters, select the best way of achieving the goal. • In due process that can change information form, or generate multiple copies, but the essence is preserved. Used by Information Warfare - Used by information warfare - cyber warfare, EM warfare, social media warfare - Information operation uses them as a technical step in publishing and dissemination tactics • EM warfare for blocking information propagation or injecting information • Social media warfare for manipulation on social media  This is warfare due to the complexity of operations on social media run by PR and marketing agencies Cyberspace Operations - We see cyber operation as a tool to achieve specific position in which specific action can be taken. - Harder to see in the case of "pure" cyber operation that exfiltrates or destroys data - BUT let us look at 2015 Ukraine power grid hack • 1. Attackers infiltrated network and compromised SCADA station. • 2. Using SCADA station, substations were powered off. - Part 1 was done by cyber security specialists, part 2 by power control specialists. - Cyber kill chain partially supports this view Cyber Operations And Information Operations - Cyber operations support information operations as a technique which implements some tactical step - Example of cyber operations in support of information operations • News portals/social media/communication platforms compromise to inject disinformation • Compromising (many) Web sites to spread disinformation • Using botnets • Disabling spread of truthful information by, e.g. DoS attacks • Blackhat SEO Nation states and Cyber operations - Cyber operations for the information operations can be run by • Nation states - APT groups • Cyber criminals - cyber criminals have resources that can be used by nation states, or bought on dark market by other interested parties • Private companies - private companies can offer services to anyone who is ready to pay for their services - In democratic countries with strong legislation cyber criminals are prosecuted, and private companies with shady practices are closed. - In authoritarian countries the three stakeholders engage in different forms of cooperation