Planning and executing successful cyber-attacks need human and financial resources.
“War is an act of force to compel the enemy to do our will,” wrote Clausewitz, a military theorist and Prussian general, in his book, “On War.”
It is a formal fight between the two or a group of enemies at a larger scale that may incur extensive losses in terms of lives and assets. An act of war is considered a means to an end: Physical violence is the means and forcing the enemy to accept the offender’s will is the end. To achieve the results in war, the opponent has to be rendered defenceless.
An act of war is always political, which means the war is the continuation of politics by other means. One school of thought subscribes to Clausewitz’s criteria of war, which is: a war has to be lethal resulting in human casualties and physical destruction of critical infrastructure, including defence installations. Does the cyberwar meet these criteria? It’s a pertinent question today.
According to some strategists and defence experts, the aim of cyber-attacks can be sabotage, espionage and subversion.
However, all three seem to be criminal in nature. An act of sabotage could destroy critical and sensitive infrastructure, both civil and military. In espionage, the attackers would disrupt or steal sensitive and critical information. This action, on its own, is not likely to result in human casualties. Subversion would result in demolishing the legitimate government. This could also change the loyalties of a significant portion of the population. This act again may or may not cause human casualties. According to the above school of thought, planning and executing successful cyber-attacks is not all that simple and economical. It needs human and financial reso ..
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