No, this isn’t a new movie coming out featuring Jean Claude Van Damme and a Nickleback-laden soundtrack. Its for real. The government realized decades ago that as the world became more and more reliant upon the interweb, it would eventually become the next battlefield also. In 2009, we have basically arrived at that point.
Think about how many times a day you use, rely upon, and NEED access to the world wide network. I’m not just talking about email, Facebook and Twitter. Almost all US commercial transactions use the web for something. Law enforcement, cell phones, and GPS are just a few other possible casualties of a WWW… Web World War. Perhaps the most dependent upon web communication and networking is the vast infrastructure of the US military and all its assets.
Right now, by a huge margin, China has the largest and most potent cyberarmy. The Chinese have been gearing up for electronic dominance for the last decade in anticipation of a war where victory will mean crushing an enemies digital infrastructure. Their strategy is straight from Art of War:
Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.
If today was this digital future, China would be the superpower, hackers would be terrorists, and the USA would have the relative military might of a Germany or Great Britain… advanced but small.
This morning, I saw this article in the New York Times about how US defense contractors are madly recruiting cyber soldiers. I find this an interesting and telling sign of the times. Our relationships are being forged online, now our wars will be fought there as well. The US military has been advertising to the young 20’s, video gamer for years in an effort to prep for this sort of conflict.
The purpose of this post isn’t to cause fear and believe me, I am the LAST person you will hear arguing for a boost of US military resources. I am simply an observer of communication trends and tools and find the notion of a digitial battleground very interesting.
But just in case you are scared, you might find this link helpful.
