An Cosantóir

20 | Cyber Warfare the FIFTH DOMAIN BY ROBERT TARRANT BA MAIN IMAGE BY JIM O'CONNOR cyber security at the Institute for In- ternational and European Affairs (IIEA), an international affairs and policy think-tank based in Dublin. The main The Twenty-First Century battlefield represents an arena inconceivable to strategic planners at the turn of the last century. In addition to air and space, military planners are now faced with comprehending the invisible battlefield, the so-called fifth domain. Cyberspace, cyber security and cyber warfare are hot topics. Like other battle spaces the cyber field is littered with its own complexities. Unlike other battle spaces, cyberspace is a rapidly advancing arena. The principal issues and policies, like deterrence and the attack capability of states, are largely developing through a Darwin- ian process of trial and error. I recently attended a conference on An Cosantóir May 2012 www.dfmagazine.ie speaker was Dr Adam Segel, the Ira A Lipman Senior Fellow for counter-ter- rorism and national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and an expert on cyber security. As well as outlining the present already been reached in the widely reported attack on the Natanz Iranian Nuclear Reactor in 2010 allegedly by an Israeli hacker linked with the Israeli De- fence Forces (IDF). The attack utilised a Stutnex Worm, a programme which uses loopholes unknown to the soft- capabilities of this new emerging battlefield Dr Segel also explained how the major powers are presently involved in testing the limits of this battle space and are looking to estab- lish 'redlines', areas of unacceptable political confrontation, which have yet to be defined. In fact, such a redline may have ware developer at the time of develop- ment. These are often called 'zero day attacks'. Not only does this represent an attack on what could be deemed critical state infrastructure, but also, if true, a shift from lone-wolf cyber attacks towards an organised military capability, even though this attack, for all intents and purposes, caused noth- ing more than a nuisance. Previously the Russia-Georgia ber warfare is twofold, political and practical. Firstly, there is a credibility gap surrounding a response to a cyber attack and in how exactly a govern- ment's response would be signalled. conflict in 2008 demonstrated the ability of cyber warfare to 'blind' an opponent before an attack, thereby establishing a true application of cyber power to the physical battlefield. However, the problem with cy-

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