Potential Employment of Offensive Reversible Cyberattacks For Strategic and Ethical Purposes

Abstract

Reversible cyberattacks are similar to ransomware and can provide a new capability in cyber warfare. They can be effective strategically and often ethically superior. Providing incentives in an attack like returning a system to its prior state can encourage a country to comply with demands by the attacker. This research discusses the types of cyberattack that can be effectively reversed, addressing their structure and capacity for reversibility. Traditional cyberattacks and reversible cyberattacks are compared, considering strategic advantages and ethical obligations and when each would be superior. Other issues addressed are the effects of backup methods, the kinds of collateral damage that cannot be reversed, and the need for a second cyberattack to accomplish reversal.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2023
Accession Number
AD1213652

Entities

People

  • Zoe M. Swiatlowski

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Collateral Damage
  • Computers
  • Critical Infrastructure
  • Cryptography
  • Cyber Warfare
  • Cyberattacks
  • Cybersecurity
  • Cyberspace
  • Cyberspace Operations
  • Denial Of Service Attack
  • Employment
  • Governments
  • Information Operations
  • Information Science
  • Information Warfare
  • International Law
  • Intrusion Detection
  • Intrusion Detection Systems
  • Intrusion Detectors
  • Malware
  • Military Operations
  • Operating Systems
  • Patient Care Management
  • United States
  • United States Government

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Cybersecurity.
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Strategic Security Studies

Technology Areas

  • Cyber
  • Cyber - Legality in Cyberspace