Potential System Vulnerabilities of a Network Enabled Force
Abstract
The intent of the UK Network Enabled Capability (NEC) initiative is to gain military advantage through greater inter-working of organizations, people and equipment. It aims to achieve this by exploiting commercial sector information technology, and associated organizational concepts, and adapting them to the defense environment. However, the technology and associated concepts do not only confer benefits, they also bring with them penalties, risks and system vulnerabilities. Such penalties, risks and system vulnerabilities could potentially be very harmful, particularly if they occur at operationally critical times. It is thus imperative that the military and research communities remain vigilant, do not seek to emphasize only the positive and consider how such penalties and vulnerabilities might occur and how they might be mitigated. This paper provides a brief review of some of the potential negative consequences of moving to a Network-Enabled future that have appeared in the open literature. As a consequence, this paper will not expose genuinely new or novel issues, particularly as the ground of vulnerabilities has previously been relatively well-trodden. However, it does attempt to aid those engaged in NCW endeavors in understanding the potential scale and extent of the problems they face, by bringing a number of the different sources and sets of issues together in a single place.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA466659
Entities
People
- Peter Houghton
Organizations
- Defence Science and Technology Laboratory