Cyber Warfare and You

Cyber Warfare and the Cyber Citizen

How would you react if your country was attacked, not by an invasion, an ICBM, or terrorist bombings, but a cyber attack. Cyber warfare is a new concept, and one that the average citizen isn’t familiar with. Cyber warfare is the attempt to infiltrate, disrupt, or destroy the computer networks and cyber infrastructure of its enemies. Cyber war can be conducted by individuals, non-state terrorists, countries, or all of the above. Cyberspace has been declared as the fifth dimension of warfare (the others being land, sea, air, and space.) With integrated networks so critical to the defense, commerce, and day-to-day life of a country, it’s essential that the average person knows what to expect and how to react if their country comes under a full-scale cyber attack.

Know How You’re Affected

If your nation’s computer networks are under full-scale assault by a cyber attack, as in full-blown cyber warfare, here’s what will happen: Your enemies infiltrate the computer networks of national defense, commerce, and telecommunications. They will then try to steal as much information from top-secret databases as they can, while simultaneously shutting down any attempts to counter this effort. If your country’s techs cannot defeat this attack, they may have to counter by ‘pulling the plug.’ Since in most cases, the nation’s telecommunications systems run both civilian and military networks at the same time, you might lose the ability to use the Internet, or even place a phone call, while your country is under attack, due to denial-of-service assaults. Don’t panic, and don’t try to complicate the issue by making phone calls or tying up net traffic. Instead, use a radio to get broadcasted information. Many people forget that the radio signals are not limited by the Internet, since so many people use the Internet to get stations! But the radio is still critical in the cyber warfare age.