Changing the Approach to Deterrence in Cyberspace while Protecting Civilians from Cyber Conflict

1. Cyber Conflict Is Real And Complex

The end of the Cold War has marked a new era in international security. The processes of intensified globalization and the technological development as a result to this tectonic shift have positive and some negative effects. Those who champion globalization and technological developments emphasise the efficiencies and opportunities in the business environment, improved technology of transportation and telecommunications, improvement in movement of people and capital, diffusion of knowledge, emphasised human dimension of the security, etc. On the other hand critics of globalization and technological development focus on the “deregulation of commodity” and the balance that has evaporated with the end of the Cold War (Fotopulos, July 2001). These processes according to some views have destroyed the “walls” and have “flattened” the world for good and for bad (Friedman, 2005, Ch-1).

The new flattened environment has ignited the process of power redistribution. As a result, states have significantly lost the monopoly of power. In this new, fundamentally transformed security environment, some actors have seized the opportunity and have started to acquire unconventional means to achieve strategic ends. Recent practice shows that competitors in the current security realm are ready to employ all forms of war simultaneously. Utilizing tactics to use modern technology (primarily designed to bring commodity and wealth) state and non-state actors multiply their power and create multidimensional threats.