The target's own cyber-physical infrastructure may be used by the adversary in case of a cyber conflict, thus weaponizing it. Clarke, defined cyberwarfare as 'actions by a nation-state to penetrate another nation's computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption'. In 2010, the former US National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection and Counter-terrorism, Richard A. proposed in 2015 that the intent of the attacker dictates whether an attack is warfare or not, defining cyber warfare as 'the use of cyber attacks with a warfare-like intent.' The warfare grounded on certain uses of ICTs within an offensive or defensive military strategy endorsed by a state and aiming at the immediate disruption or control of the enemy's resources, and which is waged within the informational environment, with agents and targets ranging both on the physical and non-physical domains and whose level of violence may vary upon circumstances. Taddeo offered the following definition in 2012: Paulo Shakarian and colleagues put forward the following definition of 'cyber war' in 2013, drawing on Clausewitz's definition of war: 'War is the continuation of politics by other means': Ĭyber war is an extension of policy by actions taken in cyber space by state or nonstate actors that constitute a serious threat to a nation's security or are conducted in response to a perceived threat against a nation's security. Duggan focused on analyzing cyberwarfare in terms of computer networks and pointed out that 'Cyberwarfare is a combination of computer network attack and defense and special technical operations.' According to this perspective, the notion of cyber warfare brings a new paradigm into military doctrine. 'Cyberwarfare' is used in a broad context to denote interstate use of technological force within computer networks in which information is stored, shared, or communicated online. Įxamples of definitions proposed by experts in the field are as follows. While the majority of scholars, militaries, and governments use definitions that refer to state and state-sponsored actors, other definitions may include non-state actors, such as terrorist groups, companies, political or ideological extremist groups, hacktivists, and transnational criminal organizations depending on the context of the work.

There is ongoing debate over how cyberwarfare should be defined and no absolute definition is widely agreed upon. The first instance of kinetic military action used in response to a cyber-attack resulting in the loss of human life was observed on, when the Israel Defense Forces targeted and destroyed a building associated with an ongoing cyber-attack. However, meeting the scale and protracted nature of war is unlikely, thus ambiguity remains. As states explore the use of cyber operations and combine capabilities, the likelihood of physical confrontation and violence playing out as a result of, or part of, a cyber operation is increased. Many countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, China, Israel, Iran, and North Korea, have active cyber capabilities for offensive and defensive operations. An alternative view is that it is a suitable label for cyber attacks which cause physical damage to people and objects in the real world. One view is that the term is a misnomer since no cyber attacks to date could be described as a war. There is significant debate among experts regarding the definition of cyberwarfare, and even if such a thing exists. Some intended outcomes could be espionage, sabotage, propaganda, manipulation or economic warfare. Cyberwarfare is the use of cyber attacks against an enemy state, causing comparable harm to actual warfare and/or disrupting vital computer systems.

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