User:Happyboy32

Arguments and understanding of information warfare

Information warfare is a new kind of warfare where information and attacks on information and its system are used as a tool of warfare. Information warfare may include giving the enemy special information (commonly referred as propaganda) to persuade the enemy to surrender, or withholding from the enemy important information that might result in the enemy’s resistance.

Information Warfare’s main objective is to obtain information supremacy so as to gain favorable edge over opponents. It mainly involves gathering of ‘tactical information’, making sure that one’s own information is well grounded as well as, information-based processes, information systems, and computer-based networks, while affecting adversary information, information-based processes, information systems and computer-based networks.

Information warfare may also include feeding “disinformation” to one’s own people either to build support for the war effort or to counter the effects of the enemy’s propaganda campaign. Finally information warfare may include designing a strategic plan for a multiple-stage attack against an adversary’s information systems while protecting one’s own information network and capitalizing on one’s own information “edge” or assets.

Information warfare damage can be manifest in countless ways such as:

Ø Railroad, trains and jets could be rerouted and caused to crash.

Ø Stock exchange could be cracked and then sabotage by “sniffers” which may cause corrupting international networks for funds transfer.

Ø Radio and television signals could be taken over and used for “misinformation” campaigns.

Examples where information warfare has been used:

1)     During the 1991 Gulf War, Dutch hacker stole information about U>s troop movements from U.S defense Department computer and tries to sell it to the Iraqis, who thought it was a hoax and turn it down.

2)     In January 1999, U.S Air Intelligence computers were hit by a coordinated attack, part of which appeared to come from Russian hacking.

3)     Operation Just Cause and Commander Solo. During Operation Just Cause, the campaign against Panama's General Manuel Noriega in 1989, psychological warfare experts accompanied U.S. Army Rangers on airborne missions. They broadcast U.S. propaganda from loudspeakers, and bombarded the Vatican embassy, where Noriega had taken refuge, with loud rock music

During Operation Uphold Democracy in 1994, it was used for radio and television broadcasts to the people of Haiti, and its frequent relays of messages from President Jean-Bertrand Aristide contributed significantly to the orderly transition from military to civilian rule.

In 1991, during Operation Desert Storm, or the Persian Gulf War, Commander Solo aircraft deploying from bases in Saudi Arabia and Turkey broadcast a program called Voice of the Gulf, along with other programs designed to convince Iraqi soldiers to lay down their arms