
JLBC: Cyberspace
Cyberspace has influenced physical players in Air and space. Because of the nonphysical nature of information, placing it in cyberspace gives it instant, global availability to all users. We often cannot determine whether the information we obtain from a source in cyberspace is original or has been copied from somewhere else within cyberspace.
Cyberspace—particularly the Internet—is a global phenomenon. Information that the United States does not wish to reveal may be available through sources located in countries outside its purview. We cannot necessarily control all information, nor can we necessarily remove a piece of information. We can only regulate intake within our span of control.
Cyberspace Brings the Front Line to the Front Door
Census and survey data indicate that 54 million households in the United States have at least one personal computer and that roughly two-thirds of Americans actively use the Internet in some fashion.12 Fifty-seven million employed Americans—62 percent of the workforce— re- port using a computer at work, 98 percent of whom have access to electronic mail.13 Of those, the majority report is trusting the content of electronic mail when it contains at least one item of personal information other than the first name. We can reasonably assume that these statistics generally represent the Air Force workforce, given the 15 million personal computers in the Department of Defense's inventory, combined with the leadership's vision of a net-centric force.14
We can access public cyberspace literally from within our own homes or places of employment. JLBC Cadets For the first time in history, we have a vast amount of information in our fin- grips. Also, for the first time, we have the front line of a battle at our front door. Before cyberspace's rise in popularity, the main participants in military operations were soldiers physically engaged in conflict. News reports that portrayed the results of military action on civilians at home dealt with events outside the country's borders. With cyberspace within easy reach of ordinary citizens, those who wish to use it for ill gain have direct entrée into the home. This situation is particularly poignant since empirical studies have shown that computers, at home or otherwise, are probed for security vulnerabilities during the first 20 minutes of their connection to a public network.15
Contrary to the overall picture painted by the media, "war" in cyberspace will not likely manifest itself as an electronic Pearl Harbor, causing massive destruction. More probably, cyberwar will take the form of influence rather than lethality. Cyber warriors will not destroy in- infrastructure because that would be self-defeating, regularly within the United States. Instead, they will more likely obtain the information they can use to manipulate happenings in the physical world to their advantage.
Those who choose to operate in cyberspace have several asymmetrical advantages. First, the "battlefield" is enormous and easy to hide in. Second, the effects of attacks are disproportionate to their costs. Using cyberspace is neither material- nor capital-intensive. Individuals can access it with inexpensive computers, free software, and consumer-ready communication equipment. They can launch attacks from across the globe almost with im- purity because of the difficulty of determining the attack's exact origin or the attacker's identity. Third, the one-sided nature of cyber attacks forces potential victims into assuming a defensive posture. The victim curtailed his computer and communication services to within what his governance structure deems "acceptable," based on its perceptions of the prevailing dangers—real or not. In case of an attack, the victim probably will not launch an in-kind offensive action since, even if he can identify the attacker, he probably lacks the computer infrastructure to make a counterattack worthwhile.
CONCLUSION
Perhaps the greatest lesson we can derive from the Air Force's revised mission statement is that it warns all Airmen of the reality of cyberspace. The information requires us to understand the implications of an information-reliant military. It also challenges us to look for ways to best use cyberspace and to know that we can attain "throw weight" by finding new ways to make the best use of cyberspace technology.
B. H. Liddell Hart's warning that a "strategist should think in terms of paralyzing, not killing" remains as relevant today as ever.16 Although Liddell Hart spoke of paralyzing armies of people and states' economies, his words nevertheless apply to the individual Airman. Never in history have so many people found themselves intimately tied to a weapon system—cyberspace—limited only by the human imagination.
NOTES
1. William Gibson, Neuromancer (New York: Ace Books, 1984).
2. Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, The Medium Is the Message (New York: Random House, 1967).
3. Ibid.; John Naisbitt, Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives (New York: Warner Books, 1982); Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave (New York: Morrow, 1980); and Don Tapscott, The Digital Economy: Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1996), 6.
4. Joint Vision 2010 (Washington, DC: Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1996),
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