Information Warfare And Security

Every day, we hear reports of hackers who have penetrated computer networks, vandalized Web pages, and accessed sensitive information. We hear how they have tampered with medical records, disrupted emergency 911 systems, and siphoned money from bank accounts. Could information terrorists, using nothing more than a personal computer, cause planes to crash, widespread power blackouts, or financial chaos? Such real and imaginary scenarios, and our defense against them, are the stuff of information warfare-operations that target or exploit information media to win some objective over an adversary.

Dorothy E. Denning, a pioneer in computer security, provides in this book a framework for understanding and dealing with information-based threats: computer break-ins, fraud, sabotage, espionage, piracy, identity theft, invasions of privacy, and electronic warfare. She describes these attacks with astonishing, real examples, as in her analysis of information warfare operations during the Gulf War. Then, offering sound advice for security practices and policies, she explains countermeasures that are both possible and necessary.

You will find in this book:

• A comprehensive and coherent treatment of offensive and defensive information warfare, identifying the key actors, targets, methods, technologies, outcomes, policies, and laws;
• A theory of information warfare that explains and integrates within a single framework operations involving diverse actors and media;
• An accurate picture of the threats, illuminated by actual incidents;
• A description ofinformation warfare technologies and their limitations, particularly the limitations of defensive technologies.

Whatever your interest or role in the emerging field of information warfare, this book will give you the background you need to make informed judgments about potential threats and our defenses against them.
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Security expert Dorothy Denning focuses on the criminals and information terrorists whose depredations include information-based threats to nations, corporations, and individuals. From government use of information warfare for law enforcement investigations and military and intelligence operations, to conflicts arising in the areas of free speech and encryption, this book places cybercrime within a broader context, integrating the various kinds of information crime -- and the countermeasures against it -- into a methodology-based framework. The approach addresses offensive information warfare (including acquisition of information) deceptive exploitation of information, and denial of access to information. Additionally, Denning presents case examples, including the Persian Gulf War, stressing actual incidents to illustrate instances of information warfare.