Idiosyntactix Strategic Arts and Sciences Alliance The Brand Name of the Media Revolution

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CONCLUSIONS

Information warfare (IW) is an unfortunate catch-all. Even when restricted to opposed information operations (vice the general use of information in warfare) it tries to cover vastly divergent activities. Of the seven forms that currently fall under the I umbrella the only well established forms are:

• C2/EW warfare to break (mostly literally) enemy command systems,

• intelligence-based warfare operations improved by information (largely intelligence) systems, and

• psychological operations, to shape the perception of facts.

Ironically, information warfare is becoming the rage just as technologies are making information systems more impervious to physical attack (thanks largely to distributed processing). Vulnerabilities to software attack remain, but techniques to control them are widely known.

Most of what U.S. forces could usefully do with information warfare is defenserather than offense. On the one hand, many offensive operations would fall afoul of the restrictive rules of engagement that govern U.S. forces. On the other, our military tends to rely much more than others on information systems, which, in open societies are easier to access and understand than those of closed societies.

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