Saturday, November 10, 2012

Connectivity, War & Beyond Cyber War


I think David Betz' conclusion is spot on:
If it seems in this article that I have wandered far from “cyber war” it is not for want of reason. The real problems of “cyber security” are not simply—or even mainly—a technical issue of computer networks, hardware and software any more than war is just a matter of weapon systems; rather, both are about politics, about society, and about understanding the human motivations behind the uses of the technology for better or worse. If we can understand this and be good engineers then we may get through the present and future turmoil. If we don’t understand this, even if we’ve got great engineers, then we really are screwed.
V/R
Dave
Connectivity, War & Beyond Cyber War

by DAVID BETZ on 9 NOVEMBER 2012 · 1 COMMENT

A few weeks ago I was invited to a conference in Holland organised by theNetherlands Intelligence Association to give a talk on ‘cyber war’. This was rather good of the organisers, I thought, since if you’d read my book (co-written with Tim Stevens) Cyberspace and the State you’d know that I’m basically skeptical of the concept both analytically and practically. The short essay below is based on the talk that I gave. It’s actually been published but translated into Dutch. I haven’t got a link at the moment. But it might as well see the light of day in the original. Have a read.

Though, actually, the more immediate prompt for this post are the reports of Iranian aircraft having attacked and failed to shoot down an American Predator drone somewhere over the Persian Gulf. Hey, good shooting Iranian Air Force! (The drone, top speed under 500kph, was unscathed).  Now it seems the conspiracists are on fire with speculation about whether the attack was hushed up prior to the election not to scupper Obama’s reelection campaign. Maybe. I doubt it. (The drone, uh, president, doesn’t seem to have needed any help anyway and his campaign emerged unscathed).
(Continued at the link above)

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