La cyberguerre, La guerre numérique a commencé (CyberWarfare, The Declaration of Digital War)

Citation

Richardson, J.G. (2009), "La cyberguerre, La guerre numérique a commencé (CyberWarfare, The Declaration of Digital War)", Foresight, Vol. 11 No. 5, pp. 85-86. https://doi.org/10.1108/14636680910994996

This book treats comprehensively – and in admirably clear terms – the pitfalls in daily life of the fast‐growing internet and, more specifically, in the relations between individual users and public authority. Author Nicolas Arpagian deals with his topic, complex as it is and expanding everywhere daily, with both a mastery of the technical knowledge required and unusual sensitivity as to the social implications – and how to make both known to the layperson. The reader will benefit immensely from its data‐packed 250 pages analyzing this new, economic‐political‐military form of stress and conflict.

Arpagian pays the most attention, therefore, to the rising use of the internet and its abuses, but he is also concerned with other, established telecommunications – especially the telephone, whether portable or fixed. In many countries the caller and recipient of telephone messages may be oblivious of intercepts made by his or her government. How much should this be accepted, and how curbed?

In the US, the primary reason given for interception is protection of the public from the flood of data to and from terrorists and other criminals. In China, the Marxist‐capitalist State gives self‐preservation, too, as the pretext for direct self‐censorship, but exercised there by the principal servers (in China alone, Google has well over 300 million users, one‐fourth of that nation's huge population; see p. 94). These are extreme cases of official snooping, with lesser intensities of passive intervention being recorded elsewhere in the world.

Internet and other “commo” facilities (radio, for instance) are used as well by governments in direct “warfare” amongst each other. Enciphered messages remain, of course, the primary targets of code breakers despite the growing complexity of coding methods and the protection of encipherment. “The information war”, states the author, “designates chiefly a struggle in which IT is used to obtain or destroy intelligence” (p. 49). He reviews, in this respect, the on‐going Echelon communication program shared by the governments of the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, targeted nominally against hostile countries but probably including many more. Echelon has become, furthermore, a bone of continuing contention among states claiming to be snooped upon by the five governments mentioned.

What does a government risk if, in fact, its communication methods are not impervious to intrusion by adversaries? Analyst Arpagian lists five probable menaces in case of national disaster (p. 71):

1. 1.

   Physical consequences for the population (e.g. paralysis of transport systems of all types) and the psychological trauma resulting from such disorder.

2. 2.

   Environmental consequences: water and electricity supplies; waste disposal; effects on chemical and nuclear plants, on broadcasting systems.

3. 3.

   Economic impacts: industrial, financial and other societal losses deriving directly from IT‐system breakdown.

4. 4.

   Political disorder exemplified by tension, factional rivalry, demonstrations, riots, civil conflict.

5. 5.

   Other disorder resulting from combinations of the four above.

Protection or violation of communications?

Much like the ceaseless improvement of firearms and weapons of more massive destruction, the improvement of communication systems is one of permanent innovation. Indeed, stresses Arpagian, “the rhythm of evolution of the means used does not depend on the R&D creativity of an industrial group” or “the technical prowess developed by a military arsenal” – nor on exhibits at armament shows, to which even the public often has access. On the contrary, the knowledge that today's communication systems will no longer be secure tomorrow encourages a certain humility among those conceiving more effective systems (p. 74).

Arpagian takes pains to remind readers that the most threatening actors targeting the security of communication systems are not necessarily governments. “In a good number of cases”, he reminds (p. 233), “the difference depends largely on imagination and creativity”. Here he alludes to the troublesome originators of viruses and phishing, the pornographers (especially those involving children and even infants) … even the aggressive sales pitches common to the advertising and public‐relations industries. “Information is a fluid that must circulate to be profitable” (p. 117).

In daily life, the author is editor of a privately‐circulated quarterly report called Prospective stratégique, financed by industry and government. He has previously published books on national security and globalized strategy systems; he is particularly well‐informed on lobbies and less‐militant interest groups in both France and abroad. His latest book is concrete, remarkably up‐to‐date, slanted to solutions, and worthy of publication in other languages (Chinese and Russian among them). Nicolas Arpagian can be contacted at cyberguerre@gmail.com