Cyber War Strategies and Tactics

Starting from the basic premise that "All warfare is based on deception", the Cyberspace offers an unprecedented amount of asymmetric power to those capable of using it. Cyber wars are often perceived as innocent exchange of "virtual shots" between teenage defacement groups, whereas if one's willing the embrace the rough reality, Hacktivism remains a sub-activity of Cyberterrorism, where Information Warfare unites all these tactics.

Quality techno-thrillers often imply the notion of future warfare battles done in the virtual realm compared to actual spill of blood and body parts -- death is just an upgrade. Coming back to today's Hacktivism dominated mainstream news space, you may find this paper on Cyberwar Strategy and Tactics - An Analysis of Cyber Goals, Strategies, Tactics, and Techniques, and the development of a Cyber war Playbook, informative reading :

"To create a cyberwar playbook, we must first understand the stratagem building blocks or possible moves that are available. It is important to note however that these stratagem building blocks in and of themselves are not strategic. Instead, it is the reasoned application of one or more stratagems in accomplishing higher-level goals that is strategic in nature. We thus need to understand the situations in which the stratagems should be applied and how. We can begin to predict and choose the most effective stratagem for a given situation as we become more experienced. Example stratagems include:

Fortify Dodge
Deceive Block
Stimulate Skirt
Condition Monitor

Stratagems may also have sub-stratagems. Examples are:

Deceive.Chaff --- Block.Barricade
Deceive.Fakeout --- Block.Cutoff
Deceive.Conceal --- Monitor.Eavesdrop
Deceive.Feint --- Monitor.Watch
Deceive.Misinform --- Monitor.Follow

These stratagems are very high level and can be supported through many tactical means. Each building block defines a stratagem and contains one or more possible tactical implementations for that stratagem, including requirements, goals that may be satisfied using the stratagem, caveats, example uses, and possible countermeasures."

No matter the NCW doctrine, UAVs intercepting or hijacking signals, "shock and awe" still dazzles the majority of prone to be abused by cheap PSYOPS masses of "individuals".

Related resources and posts:
Network Centric Warfare basics back in 1995
Information Warfare
Cyber Warfare
Who's Who in Cyber Warfare?
North Korea's Cyber Warfare Unit 121
Hacktivism Tensions - Israel vs Palestine Cyberwars
Achieving Information Warfare Dominance Back in 1962