Digital Data Warfare Using Malicious Computer Code as a Weapon

Abstract

Digital Data Warfare (DDW) is an emerging field that has great potential as a means to meet military, political, economic or personal objectives. Distinguished from the "hacker" variety of malicious computer code by its predictable nature and the ability to target specific systems, DDW provides the attacker with the means to deny, degrade, deceive and/or exploit a targeted system. The five phases of a DDW attack--penetration, propagation, dormancy, execution and termination--are presented for the first time by the author in this paper. The nature of DDW allows it to be used in the strategic, operational and tactical warfare roles. Three questions should be considered when developing a strategy for employing DDW: (1) Who should control the employment of DDW? (2) What type of systems should be targeted, and (3) Under what circumstances should DDW be used? Finally, a brief overview of possible countermeasures against DDW is provided as well as an outline of an effective information system security program that would provide a defense against DDW.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1995
Accession Number
ADA424872

Entities

People

  • Lawrence G. Downs Jr

Organizations

  • Air War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics
  • Air Platforms
  • C4I
  • Cyber
  • Electronic Warfare
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Traffic Control Systems
  • Application Software
  • Circuit Breakers
  • Command And Control
  • Commerce
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computer Viruses
  • Computers
  • Control Systems
  • Digital Data
  • Information Systems
  • Information Warfare
  • Military Organizations
  • Operating Systems
  • Trojan Horse
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Cybersecurity.
  • Irregular Warfare and Special Operations Cyberspace Operations against Adversarial Threats.
  • Systems Analysis and Design