Information Warfare Essay, Research Paper

As we entered the third wave, we traded in our pens and notebooks, for keyboards and CPU s. A simple wire connected from a phoneline to a modem to your CPU, brings the whole world into your hands. And you into the worlds hand as well. Political realism is defined as doing what is necessary for survival. One must depend on themselves, because no one else will look out for them. Information Warfare has become a massly used tactic by individuals as well as companies looking out for their own survival, in a world of commerce, and politics.

Information Warfare is an innovative and dangerous new way to harm your opponents. When one thinks of warfare the mind is usually bombarded by thoughts of M16 s, grenades, and hand to hand combat. In this new era of technology that we are living in warfare has come to mean so much more. Information warfare is the use of any type of information used to injure your opponent s progress and further your own. The power of Information Warfare spans a broad scope of uses, from the gathering information about companies, to personal blackmail. It s used not only by individuals against other persons, but companies and even the nation as well. As the third wave, defined by Tofflers, becomes more widely spread across the nation and world we can only expect a far larger usage of such technological tactics, being used in the home, workplace, and even international politics. Schwartau s definition of Information Warfare is, the use of information, and information systems as both weapons and targets in a conflict, (Schwartau 12). We are now living in a time when knowledge is power, and what is knowledge made up of? Quite simply, information.

Information Warfare is not only becoming more rampantly used among people, but they are using different types as well. There are three different classifications of Information Warfare. The first one deals with personal information warfare. This is inclusive with all the information that is available about an individual. Class two deals with corporate information warfare, which involves how information effects companies, businesses, and all economic interests. Of all the classes the third one has the broadest margin. The third class is global information warfare. This purpose of this class is to deal with all aspects of information warfare that deal with the national interest.

Each classification of Information Warfare has its own issues that are relevant to its use. Class one is predominantly involved with personal privacy and protection from outsiders. With the introduction of the Internet into our lives, electronic privacy as we know it has come to a halt. Almost all our information is stored on some sort of computer, whether it be at DMV, our Insurance company, state and federal government, video rentals, and even the EZ-Pass. While in the reality everything may indeed be objective, things in cyberspace are subjective.

Type two is more on a corporate level bringing individuals together in mass and attacking their businesses. Businesses today are making more money than ever, producing more and more products. With this comes the increased danger in releasing information regarding the companies assets and progress.

The final type, three, is the biggest and most detrimental to the people as a whole. One of the most fundamental weapons of a nation is information. These days we have more federal agencies than ever solely dedicated towards protecting and gaining information. Just to name a few: the CIA, DOJ, IA, and Pentagon. One of the hardest parts of protecting information, is the concept of how to hold on to an intangible object. In order to effectively execute a sufficient plan of attack in both economic and political situations, information has become the most valuable key to a nation.

Part II

The first amendment of the United States Constitution explicitly states that the American people are entitled to free speech. The people s thoughts and writings should be free from censorship, and they have the right to say and feel what they want. The safety of the people relies on their undeniable freedoms, listed in the amendments. By taking one of these away, or by redefining their meaning to constrict the people s liberty, we are only lessening the value of our great nation.

When the Internet was introduced into our lives, free speech in a verbal perspective, became free speech in a typed perspective. It brought a new meaning to the concept of expressing your self freely, as cyberspace opened a whole New World. Cyberspace allowed for a person in China to converse with a person in New Mexico. Such programs as America Online and Prodigy connect people on an even larger scale. With chatrooms and WebPages people can now express their views more clearly on the Internet than ever before. But are these new freedoms without flaw? Or is it possible that by providing the people with a more extensive way to show how they feel are they really imposing their views on others.

It also opens the door to the sick and perverted, who can take away the innocence of our children. Child pornography and scheduled meetings between a sick pedophile and a seven-year child have become all too common.

There are a variety of ways to look at the newfound freedom that the Internet provides. One is a positive outlook, which points to the fact that by having cyberspace in our lives; it opens the door to so much more. But one the other side of the spectrum is that of the pedophile.

Many different policies can be issued to help control the use of free speech on the Internet. In early November a new bill was introduced, S. 1482, which constricts commercial online distributors of material deemed harmful to minors. Violators of this new statute could spend up to six months in jail and have to pay a $50,000 dollar fine. Any company making material available for the public to be seen on the Internet, without requiring a credit card number could be found liable. The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), said that this new statute is restricting adults from being able to access constitutionally protected speech. Another problem is how do we define what is in fact harmful to minors? There has to be a set standard that we can follow in order to enact laws.

The school system can also keep the children in their school, from accessing undesirable cites on the world wide web. The Queensland school system has been connected to the Internet, providing the children with a whole new world of opportunities. The parents however are worried about the children being able to visit such cites that would have pornography, and/or other material unsuitable for youngsters. The school has installed a program so that if the kids were to access prohibited cites an automatic alarm would notify Education Queensland s network administrators. By taking control of the cites that the children can visit, the school system is helping to keep the children from visiting undesireable cites.

There are programs available to those parents who feel it is necessary to monitor their childs use of the Internet. Cybersitter can be purchased for around $39.95, and can help to regulate your web browser keeping your childs access to the world wide web restricted. There is even and option in which incoming and outgoing e-mails for inappropriate material.

While it is possible to intercept and not allow such things on the internet on the Internet such as pornography, or material containing racist or violent content, in order to really do so the entire net would have to be controlled. An important question that has to be asked is who will do the monitoring, and what will they base their criteria on.