INSTRUMENTAL CORRECTIONS FOR A DEFINITION OF CYBERWAR - Cyberwar-Netwar: Security in the Information Age - page 11

x Reduce national vulnerability to cyberattacks
x Minimize damage and recovery time from cyberattacks that do occur
Such analysis of texts is very useful because, for instance, the first document asserts
that the USA has a right to undertake the following actions (page 44):
x “When a nation, terrorist group or other adversary attacks the United States
through cyberspace, the U.S. response need not be limited to criminal
prosecution or even to information warfare means. The United States reserves the
right to respond in an appropriate manner when its vital interests are threatened
by attacks through cyberspace, just as it would with any other kind of
aggression” .
The next document proclaims a similar idea in a more delicate way:
x “The speed and anonymity of cyberattacks makes distinguishing among the
actions of terrorists, criminals, and nation states a difficult, one which often
occurs only after the fact, if at all. Therefore, the National Strategy to Secure
Cyberspace helps reduce our Nation's vulnerability to debilitating attacks against
our critical information infrastructures or the physical assets that support them” .
The quoted documents prove the necessity to classify all kinds of cyberconflicts. The
required classification is presented in the research of the US Air Command and Staff
College Air University, as spectrum “Cyber-crime-Hacktivism-Cyber-Espionage-
Cyberterrorism-Cyberwar” (see fig. 3). 19
The conceptions of cyberterrorism and hacktivism attract much attention from
researchers. Cyberterrorism can be defined as the premeditated, politically motivated
attack against information, computer systems, computer programmes, and data, which
result in violence against noncombatant targets; sub-national groups or clandestine
agents usually carry out the attacks.
Another form of cyberterrorism is known as 'cybotage', which includes acts of
disruption and destruction against information infrastructures by terrorists who learn the
skills of cyberattack.
Fig. 3. Spectrum of Cyber Conflict