Asymmetric Warfare Requires Change To Holistic Thinking;

Best Defense Is Prepare, Plan and Role-Play

By Judy Silver, Senior Editor

Today, security is a compelling issue for everyone. Corporations, government agencies, state and local governments, as well as individuals are all vulnerable.

According to Randall K. Nichols, CIO of Carlyle, Pa-based Infosec Technologies, we are at war and that the war being generated against us is asymmetric, a type of warfare that has a much bigger effect than most people realize. These attacks will require us to change our linear way of thinking and start addressing risk issues as holistic responses.

Information operations (IO) are probably the most important element of the tool kit for asymmetric components. Our country relies heavily on information technology (IT) for seeking, finding, processing, and using information. IO effects the thinking, planning, data, information and knowledge that we have to protect ourselves.

IT Dependent
 

“We are unmistakably dependent on the tools of IT and that dependence is what terrorists are depending on,’’ explains Nichols, adding that we tend to give a technical response rather than a human response. We must prepare, plan and role-play to understand how to predict behavior.

Because the enemy can’t beat us on the field they are attacking our soft targets- our national will.

“They are hoping for the same kind of effects that happened in Viet Nam,’’ said Nichols, reminding us that our past response has been to withdraw.

Also, intelligence was and remains a major problem for our country. The information we had from the various agencies designed to protect us wasn’t being shared and that the information was located in databases and computers all over the place.

Another problem is that our laws are far behind the technology at this time. Even our best legal minds are having trouble trying to figure out to put jurisdiction on someone originating an attack in one country, routing it through several others before damaging thousands of networks in our country.

Elements of Warfare
 

Nichols describes several elements of asymmetric warfare:

-- We are fighting a tactical, operational and strategic war.

-- No one is safe.

-- Asymmetric attacks focus on windows of opportunity; activities that compound in importance because they happen simultaneously.

“The communications structure, especially the U.S, is global, but presents a unique opportunity to synchronize those activities,’’ said Nichols. “We share information, knowledge instantly across space and time. It empowers small groups. We are not only defending ourselves from Alkida, but we’re defending ourselves against hate-mongers who are able to spread their views through the Internet.”

Decisions are made across space and time which further empowers our enemies. Physical and distance dissipate in importance; specifically related to where information is based. We have a knowledge management problem in our thinking. We are symmetric in our thinking.  Our opponents are spending a great deal of money and time figuring out what our vulnerabilities are.

We put many of our vulnerabilities out on the network. For example, when we see a virus our response is to create anti-virus software.