EC 521 : Cyber Security : Perils to Theory and statecraft Internationa

Part 1

According to the article “The meaning of the cyber revolution: Perils to theory and statecraft. International Security” by Kello, Kello is concerned with the threat posed by cyber to its users. The article has some strengths, and the first strength is that it provokes the decision makers on cyber threats (Kello, 2013). The second strength is that it discusses how to integrate cyber realities into the global studied to formulate desirable policies for intellectual growth. The third strength is that developers of cyber innovation, as well as operational concerns, do not ban scholarly examination (Kello, 2013). However, the article has some weaknesses since it states that cyber weapons lack the basic ability for violence and do not change the means or nature war hence missing the real essence of threat and hide its real importance. Also, the article does not suggest the best-proven strategy to curb cyberwar (Kello, 2013). For further studies in this area of cybersecurity, it is wise to look in depth at how the public may apply as well as be compliant with actual national security plans.  

According to the article The Myth of Cyberwar Bringing War in Cyberspace Back Down for Earth by Erik Gartzke, he states that cyber war is observed with an actual observation and the way it is expressed in the television or radio.  The author reminds the public of how there are restrictions on what may be attained via online.  “Cyber-attacks are doubtful to verify mostly effective in excellent premeditated relations except they may enforce much, resilient destruction on a rival (Gartzke, 2013).  The strength of the article is that it led us to the questions of the operational effectiveness and cyber-attacks issues.  In some areas, there is a substantial change of the art of war-making people to refer cyberwar as a cyber-warfare. The emerging technology in the current day has changed to an entirely new responsibility which was not expected to be there at the start. The development of the internet was an innovative idea of generating information with no boundaries. However, due to the risks posed by cyber war, the users of the internet has begun to panic since they fear that they may lose some of the crucial information or their data may be exposed to a third party.  The topic of international law and how it could have a critical effect on cyber wars emerging. I believe that the area of global law must be stressed more for clarity. Cooperation and effective communication among countries will assist in curbing cyber wars. The United States together with other countries have now started great transformations planned for fight online, whereas some public fighters have been reduced on the basis which cyberwar can well establish the subsequent huge risk (Gartzke, 2013).  Specifying on what institutes as these risks may assist to recognize any weaknesses which can make it simpler for a cyber-warfare to be utilized. For further studies need to come with a way of working together to avoid their systems from being hacked.

According to the article, “Cyberwar is already upon us. Foreign Policy” by Arquilla, he states that the increasing importance of battleground information systems, as well as the deep effect their disturbance may have during wars, are small and large (Arquilla, 2012). For instance, the cyber war conducted in Georgia one of the American ally in 2008 had a shocking effect. Cyber-attacks enabled their progress due to the availability of communication systems. Its origin was from an online assault.  The strength of this article is that it educates the public and users of the internet on the dangers of cyber-attacks. For instance, the Estonian and Stuxnet cyber-attacks that were devastating was that the identity of the hacker was not identified with certainty. The article further educates people about the severity of cyber war by stating that even the United States military system was hacked and their intellectual properties were exposed (Arquilla, 2012). These hackers mostly are rivals of the United States and are either from Russia and China, but these claims cannot be ascertained. Lack of identification of hacker’s shows that they are a step ahead of the general public. Another strength is that the author educates the public by warning them about cyberwar that is conducted in smaller-scale (Arquilla, 2012). He states that soon these smaller-cyberwar attacks might turn out to be large attacks since there is a vulnerability of the United States military communication systems. Hence, the government must think of ways to curb these cyber-attacks since they will play a major role in case of wars in future.

The weakness of the article is that it has failed to explain how the hackers can be identified. It should be noted that despite strong encryption hackers still have their way since no system that 100 percent safe. Cyberwarriors need to come up with a way to recognize hackers since they cause a threat to global security especially when they hack military systems (Arquilla, 2012). Though the article has suggested measures to prevent cyberwars, the public still feels unsafe since when they systems are hacked the hackers cannot be identified and may end up losing everything. Further studies need to be done in this area to identify measures that can be used to identify hackers and prevent them from hacking the systems.

Part 2

Though the United States federal administration has established a strong, legal, supervisory as well as policy structure to deal with cybersecurity concerns it still requires to be constantly updated (Fischer, 2012).  A policy inquiry for additional research on the part of the United States federal administration cybersecurity trials is the way to further this study to remain relevant in future. According to John and Anna in the article, The Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative:  Legal Authorities and Policy Consideration, they laid out the policy deliberations on cybersecurity as well as how it may be connected to terrorism (Rollings, & Henning, 2009).  To minimize any weakness more need to be done apart from laying out the policies. Enforcing these policies is a good move to discourage those that may want to be engaged in cyber-crime (The White House, 2011). Also, creating public awareness is a good step to ensure that civilians are not lured through cyber-crime.  

References:

Fischer, E. A. (2012). Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions. Washington, DC: U.S. Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service. 

Gartzke, E. (2013). The myth of cyberwar: Bringing war in cyberspace back down to earth. International Security, fall 2013.

Rollings, J. & Henning, A. C. (2009). Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative: Legal Authorities and Policy Considerations. Congressional Research Service. 

The White House (2011).The Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative. Washington, D.C.

Arquilla, J. (2012). Cyberwar is already upon us. Foreign Policy. March/April, 2012. 

Kello, L. (2013). The meaning of the cyber revolution: Perils to theory and statecraft. International Security, Fall 2013.