Re: Quick Review: Cyberwar as a Confidence Game by Martin C. Libicki

[Kevin Noble <knoble () terremark com>]

If we are seeking to retrofit military terminology to explore offensive actions in the 'cyber' domain then perhaps the 
best fit is 'special operations' or 'special warfare' as mentioned in a post.  Conventional force-on-force just does 
not seem apt to the discussion.  The tomahawk scenario is like a DDoS barrage and still does not mold well into the 
discussion in my view.  

Cyber requires special training and considerable practice and preparation to achieve 'relative superiority' over a 
given opponent. "Special operations defies conventional wisdom by using a small force to defeat a much larger or 
well-entrenched opponent."  Any action is short lived and require a series of successful action to conduct espionage, 
issue false orders to military units or entire commands, sabotage systems or markets.  A given cyber attack can be 
measured from the initial point of vulnerability (detection, deterrence etc.) through the gradual rise to 'mission 
completion'.  Perhaps somewhere along the way 'Murphy's law increased the probability of failure and as an attacker you 
regroup and determine if you have lost the element of surprise.  Conventional special ops is usually measures in hours 
yet a cyber attack is inverse, it would be mere seconds for well-planned attacks or months of entrenching in 
preparation for a possible mission.  These ideas are not new but p
 erhaps mapping them to cyber is novel.  You can find these concepts in the very first chapter of McRaven's Spec ops 
book. 

A very big factor in all this is surprise, either in the audacity of the objective or the events that lead up to it. 
This list has been throwing darts in the shifting sands of cyber for quite some time, does any model really map to 
cyber or are we forced to wait for the language develop organically.

Kevin N.
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