{"id":20000,"date":"2016-01-19T20:40:19","date_gmt":"2016-01-19T20:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/uncategorized\/2016\/01\/19\/cyberwar-will-you-know-it-if-you-see-it\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T18:14:04","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:14:04","slug":"cyberwar-will-you-know-it-if-you-see-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/c4isrnet\/opinion\/the-compass\/net-defense-blogs\/2016\/01\/19\/cyberwar-will-you-know-it-if-you-see-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyberwar: Will you know it if you see it?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Lately, my news feeds and Google search <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">results and <\/span>alerts have been filled with talk of cyber war.\u00a0Article after article has<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">ve<\/span> referred to a number of cyberattacks as acts of cyberwar, but clarification is needed.<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">\u00a0This has gotten to the point where a bit of correction is needed.<\/span>\u00a0While there is not total agreement internationally about what constitutes an act of cyberwar, there<span class=\"rte rte-comment\"><\/span>\u00a0are some examples that should be used to properly classify these events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span class=\"rte rte-comment\">U.S. <\/span>Secretary of Defense Ash<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">ton<\/span> Carter has gone on record and stated that an act of cyberwarfare is defined as a cyberattack on critical infrastructure, the economy or U.S. military operations.\u00a0To further clarify his definition, he said<span class=\"rte rte-comment\"> and pointed out that<\/span> the cyberattack that was attributed to North Korea against Sony did not rise to the level of an act of war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence<span class=\"rte rte-comment\"> (CCDCOE)<\/span>\u00a0lists <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">states that <\/span>the United States&#8217; <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">believes the <\/span>definition of cyberwar is the use of computers to disrupt the activities of an enemy country, especially the deliberate attacking of communication systems.\u00a0 One individual <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">I spoke to that was <\/span>familiar with the topic summed it up nicely: <span class=\"rte rte-comment\">.\u00a0 He said, <\/span>&#8220;We can\u2019t even agree if [cyberattack]<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">it&#8217;s [cyberattack or cyberttack]<\/span>\u00a0is one<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">1<\/span> or two<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">2<\/span> words.\u00a0How do you expect everyone to agree on what constitutes a cyberwar?\u00a0Oh wait, is cyberwar one<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">1<\/span> or two<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">2<\/span> words?&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just look at the difference between those two definitions.\u00a0<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">With that in mind, stop and t<\/span>Then think for a moment about all the definitions by our NATO allies, the United Nations and others have.\u00a0<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">Now consider that this year the question popped up asking, &#8220;<\/span>Has an international cyberwar\u00a0begun?<span class=\"rte rte-comment\">&#8220;<\/span>\u00a0How would we know if there is not a definition we can all agree upon?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This subject matter has intensified after the recent cyberattack on the Ukrainian power grid industrial control systems that resulted in a blackout in December 2015 and plunged 700,000 homes into darkness. Setting an agreed upon definition of what constitutes a cyberattack should be a high priority topic for the United Nations.\u00a0The definition of &#8220;I&#8217;ll know it when I see it&#8221; is not acceptable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Without a commonly accepted definition of cyberwar, how will we know if we&#8217;re in one?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":25506,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":130,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[16,130,24,58],"tags":[],"coauthors":[858,888],"class_list":["post-20000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-it-networks","category-net-defense-blogs","category-opinion","category-the-compass"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"HFAHYUN2RZHTJPMCUXCXK6QOWY","arc_canonical_url":"\/opinion\/the-compass\/net-defense-blogs\/2016\/01\/19\/cyberwar-will-you-know-it-if-you-see-it\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Cyberwar: Will you know it if you see it? - C4ISRNet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Without a commonly accepted definition of cyberwar, how will we know if we&#039;re in one?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cyberwar: Will you know it if you see it?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Without a commonly accepted definition of cyberwar, how will we know if we&#039;re in one?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" 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