Sunday, August 3, 2014

Cyber Conflict vs Cyber War


Currently doing some reading and came across the topic Cyber Conflict vs Cyber Warfare which I thought was interesting. In investigating this, I thought I should look from the perspective of a conflict vs a war to see if I can understand this properly.

According to "The international guide to addressing Gender-based Violence Through sport, Special section of conflict + post-conflict settings" the word conflict is derive from the Lation "to clash or engage in a fight", "and it indicates a confrontation between one or more parties aspiring towards incompatible or competitive means or ends". More importantly, it states, "Conflicts, if controlled or managed constructively, do not lead to violence.

According to Wikipedia.org a "War is an organized and often prolonged conflict  that is carried out by states or non-states actors. It is generally characterised by extreme violence, social disruption and economic destruction."

From the above two definitions, I would conclude that typically issues surrounding nation state or non-nation states actors attacking another's computing assets should more than likely be classified as Cyber Conflict. However, while my assumptions may be limited and simplistic based on the definitions above, I would not be surprised if there were deaths as a result of Cyber Conflict(s) which may have resulted or lead to a Cyber War.

Warfare relates to the set of techniques used to carry out war.

Reference:
http://gbvguide.org/conflict/context/defining-conflict-post-conflict
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War

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