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Annotated Bibliography

The Prominence of Cyber Warfare in Future Conflicts

Joshua Sun
Professor Malcolm Campbell
UWRT 1103
October 16, 2016

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Annotated Bibliography
Armerding, Taylor. "Cyber Warfare in Sights at Government Training Conference." Network
World. CSO, 18 May 2012. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.
Network World, a website that focuses on cyber news, is powered by the International Data
Group, the largest tech media group in the world. Taylor Armerding, an experienced
freelance writer for International Data Group, shares his analysis of the Cyber Warfare and
Security Summit during June of 2012. During the course of the summit, the panel,
consisting of many cyber-defense experts, reevaluates the importance of industrial military
funding and calls for a shift in military development and strategy that heavily revolves
around cyber defense. The panel, brought together by the Institute for Defense and
Government Advancement (IDGA), makes several points (1) recruit the most talented
people to work in the cyber defense system and (2) prepare for the quickly changing cyberattacks. This panel has a desire to transform cyber-threats into economic advantage
through the recruiting of talented individuals. Because of the flexible nature of cyber
security systems, cyber defense programs can lease out assistance to private companies or
other nations. Overall, the government can protect the economy in many ways by reducing
the possibility of physical repercussions of cyber-attacks before the attacks even occur.
Due to the fact that the United States has computerized almost all aspects of life, the IDGA
predicts that cyber-attacks can have a variety of kinetic damage such as, sabotaging
electrical generation stations, refineries, pipelines, banking systems, railroad switches,
flight control centers, and etc. (1). This analysis serves as an objective report of the
subjects covered in one of the more recent Cyber Warfare and Security Summits.
Armerding makes his article reputable by quoting and referencing the panelists many times

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throughout the article. Compared to the other sources in this bibliography, Armerdings
article serves to keep the general public informed of the decisions of the experts during
one specific event. I find that this source is very useful in summarizing how national
defense programs are evolving; however, this article does not provide an in-depth analysis
nor the results from this summit. I most likely will acknowledge this source in my essay,
and if I do, I will support this source with a more detailed report or journal article issued
by the government or a similar association that also includes the results and decisions
made from this conference.
Cavelty, Myriam Dunn. "Cyber-TerrorLooming Threat or Phantom Menace? The Framing of
the U.S. Cyber-Threat Debate." Journal of Information Technology & Politics. 4.1 (2008):
19-36, Taylor Francis Online. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.
Dr. Myriam Dunn Cavelty, a Deputy for research at the Center for Security Studies (CSS),
writes a peer-reviewed journal article, Cyber-TerrorLooming Threat or Phantom
Menace? The Framing of the US Cyber-Threat Debate." This article published by the
Journal of Information Technology and Politics, serves to analyze the cyber-threat debate.
Cavelty states that computer technology has been involved with national security in the
past decade, but the fears that are developed in the general public remain largely the stuff
of Hollywood movies or conspiracy theory (20). Cavelty defends her position by stating
that the controversy of the cyber-fear is not supported by actual results from
cyberterrorism. Another problem is that government officials and media groups
incorporated many terms that included the prefixes cyber, computer, and information in the
early 1980s, which instilled fear into the general public that was just beginning to
familiarize itself with technology. Cavelty argues that these vague terms are losing

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meaning because the public and the entertainment industry are assigning a misunderstood,
fear-filled meaning to them. Cavelty, then, describes four types of framing: diagnostic,
prognostic, motivational, and frame resonance. Diagnostic framing is clearly defining a
problem and assigning blame for the problem to a [source] (23). In turn, the fears of
terrorism are often framed to cyber-attacks. Cavelty acknowledges the lack of knowledge
in the general public, but also finds that the government often frames technology usage to
the threat of cyber-terrorism and its potential damage without a reasonable amount of
evidence. She writes, In the CIA Answers to Questions for the Record, dated April 8,
2002, Various terrorist groups including al-Quaida and Hizballah are becoming more
adept at using the Internet and computer technologies, and the FBI is monitoring an
increasing number of cyber threats (28). This CIA document follows the typical
guideline of a framing report: vague and broad in all aspects such as what or who is seen
as the threat and what or who is seen as being threatened (28). Dr. Cavelty concludes that
there have not been recorded events where terrorists have used cyber warfare as a weapon.
She supports that cyber security should not decrease, but the information needs to be more
accurately distributed through a better use of framing techniques. This outdated academic
article, published in 2008, offers insight on past thoughts and brings to light the changes
that have happened in an eight-year span. In this peer-reviewed article, Dr. Cavelty shares
her opinion which is backed up by a large amount of references. Although some of the
information has expired such as her remark of how terrorist groups and nations are not
using cyber warfare, the aspects of how the general public have a misunderstanding and a
misdirected fear are still accurate; government reports, to this day, are still vague in their
framing techniques which can hinder the clarity of the complex issue. This source, reliable

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eight years ago, can serve as a comparison to the present situation and can be used as the
counter-argument to evaluate how prevalent cyber warfare is nowadays. Compared to the
other sources in the bibliography, this article addresses the counter-argument on the rising
prevalence of cyber warfare. I will lightly touch on this source in my project. This article
opened up new questions of how government framing impacts current cyber-warfare
legislation, but this source helped me understand the causes of the public
misunderstanding on cyber-terrorism and cyber-threats.
Flowers, Angelyn, and Sherali Zeadally. "Cyberwar: The What, When, Why, and How." IEEE
Technology and Society Magazine (2014): 14-21, IEEE. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.
Cyberwar: The What, When, Why, and How is a commentary provided through the
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine. The authors Dr. Angelyn Flowers, Graduate
Program Director of Homeland Security, and Dr. Sherali Zeadally, Associate Professor at
the University of Kentucky, provide an in-depth overview of all the aspects of cyber
warfare. Flowers and Zeadally begin by exploring several definitions of cyberwar. The
Tallinn Manual on International Law Applicable in Cyberwarfare created by the North
Atlantic Treaty Association defines cyberwar as a cyberattack, in either an offensive or
defensive cyber operation, that is reasonably expected to cause death to persons, damage,
or cause destruction to objects (15). Similarly, the Geneva Center for the Democratic
Control of Armed Forces defines cyberwar as warlike techniques fought in the cyber
realm, the invisible connections between technological systems, that disrupts networks and
systems of a target-enemy in order to compromise the capability of technology in defense
or cyber terror programs. Flowers and Zeadally address the frequency of cyberattacks;
using the data from Deutsche Telekom AG, a German Telecommunications company,

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Flowers and Zeadally found that over 5.8 million cyber-attacks occurred in a span of one
month, May 2013. Flowers and Zeadally predict that the number has increased
exponentially in the present day and explain that smaller nations and terrorist organizations
are capitalizing on this cheaper form of warfare. Although cyber security and warfare
require more specialized training for individuals, cyber warfare has been proven to be
easier to access. Nations, terrorist groups, corporations, and many other groups can easily
hire past cybercriminals to become cyber warriors for their purpose. Finally, Flowers
and Zeadally analyze the types of cyber-attacks and the possible results of the attacks; the
most common attack is the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. With a bit of side
research, I found that Server Message Block attacking happens when the attacker selects a
target server to authenticate and waits for someone on the network to input their personal
information to an account. This way, the attacker receives the information and gains access
to the victims account. Another type of attack that is very common is Distributed Denial
of Service (DDoS), where multiple compromised systems are used to target a single
system attack to overload the functionality of the server creating a denial of service. The
authors compare DDoS attacks to a naval blockade during a war; a naval blockade blocks
supplies during a war, and similarly, a DDoS attack blocks the exchange of information
through a high-level of spamming (20). Flowers and Zeadally end with a projection that
cyberattacks will continue to increase exponentially in the future. This commentary is very
reliable and objective because first, it is published by the IEEE Technology and Society
Magazine, a reputable technology-related source, and secondly, because of the thorough
incorporation of references by Dr. Flowers and Dr. Zeadally. This commentary serves to
provide quality information on almost all aspects of the current cyber warfare situation for

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beginner researchers in the field. Compared to other sources in this bibliography, this
source provides a very detailed overview, which was the reason I started with this source
and continue to use it. I most likely will address this source multiple times throughout my
essay. This source allowed me to accurately understand what is happening in the broad
spectrum of cyber warfare and every time I read it, I find more interesting information. I
will definitely explore the references listed at the bottom of this source.
Gibney, Alex. Interview by Ari Shapiro."Documentary Explores the Cyber-War Secrets of
Stuxnet." All Things Considered. Natl. Public Radio, 4 July 2016. NPR.org. Web. 16 Oct.
2016.
National Public Radio (NPR) published a transcript of a segment of their show, All Things
Considered. This episode discussed a documentary about Stuxnet, the computer code that
dismantled the Iranian Nuclear Program in Natanz, that Alex Gibney, an American
documentary film director and producer, recently created: Zero Days. During the sevenminute interview, Gibney describes the reasons and the importance of creating the
documentary on Stuxnet stating that theres a new kind of weapon abroad. And now its
being seen in the Defense Department as a completely different area. Gibney goes on
to say during his explanation of the history of Stuxnet that cyber warfare is transforming
modern warfare on a large scale by providing an informative comparison of the
development of cyber warfare to those portrayed in recent movies. He describes a scene in
Die Hard 3 where airplanes become weapons, water filtration plants start
manufacturing poisoned water to be an actual problem for the future. He supports this
statement by relating it to a current event that happened in the Ukraine where a large part
of the Ukrainian electrical grid was shut down; Russia was able to easily invade the system

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through successive cyber-attacks due to the old and vulnerable structure of the grid.
Gibney ends the interview by providing insight on how cyber warfares most damaging
aspect is its invisibility. Throughout the interview, Gibney shares his desire to spread
awareness to all people and clarify misunderstandings on cyber warfare through his
documentary. I find this source useful, not only because of the variety of information
presented, but because of the link to the documentary of Stuxnet, Zero Days. I found the
connection between the entertainment industrys portrayal of cyber warfare and reality the
most intriguing because it addresses the argument of how movies are inaccurately
depicting the future of cyber warfare as stated in a prior article in this bibliography,
Cyber-TerrorLooming Threat or Phantom Menace? The Framing of the US CyberThreat Debate. Because this was a segment of a show on NPR, the interview presented a
complex subject in a simple and understandable way so that the listeners could understand
multiple aspects that surrounded a larger topic. Acknowledging that Ari Shapiro, co-host
on the show All Things Considered, asked a few opinion-based questions, the majority
of this interview was objective and informational. I will barely use this source in my essay,
but I know I will be using or researching Stuxnet through the documentary that Gibney has
created.