Security and Privacy in a Networked World/Cyberwars

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The Online Battlefield

Using IT in military context today involves various applications, for example

  • propaganda and information warfare (including controlling the public on both sides of the 'front')
  • cryptography
  • communication interception (cyberespionage)
  • communication disruption and sabotage (cyberattacks on infrastructure using e.g. DDOS)


Cryptography has a history that spans far before the Internet age. So does propaganda, albeit the information warfare has gained many new measures with the advent of social media (as exemplified by "Facebook revolutions" worldwide). Cyberespionage has its predecessors in various technologies of the mid-20th century. While communication disruption and sabotage have some ancestors in the pre-IT era, its true potency has only been realized recently - the first widely published case was likely Stuxnet. However, current threat analyses point out actual attack vectors towards critical infrastructure, e.g. the power grid (the central website of the US Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy reliability, energy.gov, has an extensive section on cybersecurity).

Looking back

While military cryptography can be traced back to the antiquity (e.g. scytale, the connection with IT was probably first made with the Enigma machines - as many chapters of early history of computers, e.g. the work of Alan Turing as well as one of the pretenders to the title of the first modern computer, Colossus, were linked to them.

Additional reading and links

Also in Estonian:

  • MÄGI, Harri, VITSUT, Lauri. Infosõda: visioonid ja tegelikkus. Eesti Ekspressi kirjastus 2008.
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