DOCID 4033695 Spring 1997 THINKING OUT LOUD ABOUT CYBEHSPACE U by Wii am 8 5m Jr Directors Specini Assistant for Information Warfare INTRODUCTION U 3 March 1997 the Secretary of Defense of v- cially delegated to the National Security Agency the authority to develop Corn puter Network Attackl CNA techniques This delegation of authority has added a new third dimension to one mission future That is in the networked world of CyberSpace CNA technology is the nature companion of exploit and protect functions This delegation of authority is sure to be a catalyst for major change in basic processes and its workforce The end result however should remain information technology-derived products services and experts U The articles following this introduction were written by the staff of the Director s Spa- cial Assistant for Information Warfare Because confusion still surrounds the emergence and histOry of Information Warfare 1W these articles are intended to contribute to the common understanding of why information Operations and its concepts are important to the future of NSA I 008 3600 1 information Operations dated December 1996 de nes NA as operations to disrupt deny degrade or destroy information resident in computers arid computer networks or the computers and networks themives A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE U U After World War II an understanding of the core competency underlying the making and breaking of codes -- resutted in a national decision to consolidate both activities in one organization NSA Both activities bene ted from this consolidation and became stronger Wine the end of the Cold War in an emerging networked world an under- standing of the emergence of a new core competency cyberology with its ciose technological rela- tionship to has again resulted in a national decision to consolidate Cyberology s central activities expioitation protection and attack will be worked together thus bene ting all of them SETTING THE STAGE U U There are certain assumptions that underpin the thought processes related to preparing for our Agency s future in cyberspace These are premises that are basic to the understanding the preparations and the acceptance of major changes The following presents the main assumptions We re On the Edge of a New Age U U First is an acceptance that we are on the edge of a new age calied the information Age Also that this new age is engui ng almost every aspect of society including the very nature of our business The basic premise is that the information technology advancements of the last 30 years far exceed any evolu- tion of technology in the Industrial Age These advances are so traumatic and far-reaching that they clearly represent something truly new it is important to note that historically technotogical advance ments were cailed revoiutions when they make progress of a single order of magnitude g the automo bile revolutionized transportation because it was ten times faster than the horse In the case of information technology the contention is that the last thirty years have seen an advancement of not one but six orders of magnitude mm 1 000 000 times m- in information technology The end result has been a great deal of confusion and turmoil as human nature attempts to force the new of the Information Age into the known of the industrial Age This new however does not we have to change the thought process The Public Sees Government as the Bad Guy U U Second the pubiic reaction to this new age has a direct relationship to the National Security Agency and the way we do business At the beginning of the Industrial Age the public centered in on industrialists and or capitalists as being the problem Labor unions were created and child iabor laws were enacted to curb their power in today s Age the public has centered in on government as the prob- lem Speci cally the focus is on the potential abuse of the Government s applications of this new infor mation technology that will result in an invasion of personal privacy For us this is dif cult to understand We are the government and we have no interest in invading the persona privacy of US citizens Regardless the public s concerns are real and have an impact upon us The Computer Security Act of 1987 is one example of this impact for it clearly represents a rst step in limiting any potential NSA invoivernent in the pubiic sector err-cans DOCID 4033695 Spring 399 71113 Age Brought Its Space With It U U Third a major aspect of the Information Age is that it is ushering in a totaiiy new sphere of opera- tious a new environment called cyberspace For many cyberspace is an ill-de ned comic-book concept perhaps something created by a science- ction writer or a Hollywood producer But for NSA in the Information Age cyberspace is both real and virtual while the real portion consists of physical assets computers network terminals satellites fiber Optic cables etc located on earth and in space it is the virw trial aspect all interconnected all networked all compatible and interoperable that is the most impor taut Almost every type of interaction that occurs in the physical world will have a corollary in cyberspace U in cyberspace complex networks on networks emerge as an organizing concept upon which our future operations must focus All networks are interconnected and routing across the various elements of the network is automatic and not pro determinable Descriptors such as Defense lnformation Infrastruc- ture DH or National information Infrastructure Nil refer to portions of users of the Global information Infraatructure Gil or better yet the users of cyberspace s transportation system The future global use and dependency on cyberspace should evolve much the way the use of the internet has evolved today because it should be extremely cost effective The more important aSpect of this interuconnectivity is the fact that as we move into this complex networked future computers are in charge and physical geography becomes less and less important While computers initially automated routine and mundane tasks today inter-networking has turned computers and systems to networks affording opportunities to work with greater and greater amounts of information at any distance In the future advances in arti cial intelli- gence and increases in understanding of cognitive processes in general move us rapidly into a situa lion where computers and networks work in conjunction with each other under broad guidance from humans to actually make decisions and act on our behalf This is cyberspace 5 future The Future of Warfare is Warfare in CyberSpace m- a k a Information Warfare U U When we look to the future of warfare in the information Age we ask ourselves the question How do you conduct warfare in cyberspace The answer is Information Warfare or in accordance with DoD s new Directive 3600 1 Information Operations Information warfare has been the subject of many speeches scholarly papers and popular journals Information warfare has even made its debut in Holly wood in the lm Independence Day These many differing views of confuse information in war information technology enhancements of existing combat or weapon systems and warfare in cyberSPace In our View information in war has been with us throughout history intelligence on opposing forces was as valuable to as it was to MacArthur information technology enhance- ments emerged during the Industrial Age with the natural evolution of weapons technology 1W for us however is warfare in cyberspace and is an exclusive feature of the Information Age We believe that its biggest impact is yet to come U Another napect of warfare that came with the information Age is that actual physical combat can be viewed in living rooms of America via television The horrors of war cannot be hidden As a result in the simplest of tenus body bags are no longer acceptable There is considerable societal pressure to nd uon lethal means of accomplishing tasks that once called for conventional military action U For the military the information Age presents yet another problem the kind of computers communications and networking available in the commercial world how can the military justify separate systems Commercial communications networks are too ineXpensive and too pervasive to ignore The more 40 33695 spring 1 99 good news for the military is that m probably for the rst time they will have interoperable communica- tions in joint service activities and even in muitioationai operations The bad news however is that they wiil also be interoperable with their adversaries information Age terms provides a digital coercion option The pri mary target of this option is the information infrastructure of an adversary Such information infrastruc- tures are expected to be primarily computer controlled operated by the commercial civilian sector unpro tected and the primary infrastructure upon which military forces almost totaily depend For 1W purposes access to these computeocootrolled infrastructures can pemit the degradation disruption or destruction of the network and or the functions they serve As a result the computers become the intelligence tar- gets of highest priority Wmem are speci c types of weapons associated with Information Warfare These include viruses worms iogic bombs trojan horses Spoo ng masquerading and back or trap doors They are referred to as tools or techniques even though they may be pieces of software They are publicly available very powerful and if effectively executed extremely destructive to any society s informatioa infrastructure U As a last thought in setting the stage we expect the Infoni'iatiori Warrior of the future to be very different in their thought processes They will understand the non physical nature of the future capabili ties will be comfortable with working across the Spectrum and have extensive knowledge of non-military targets Probably most importantly they will be comfortable with the concept of networks They will understand that information operations are more than Operations supported by intelligence and com medications rather they will understand that all three function together synergistically Finally Informa tion Warriors will understand that in the tooth-to-tail accounting of personnel military personnel will be the tooth and civilians will be the tail Tail equates to the emerging information infrastructure a pri- mary strategic target of WV THE BEGINNING We following articles will look in depth at various aspects of Infor oration Operations or information Warfare as they relate to NSA Cyberology and our new CNA mission should provoke much thought and discussion It is hoped that these articles will serve as a catalyst and basis for these activities WM Black retired from NSA in 1997 after a long career He was the rst Director 3 Special Assistant for Information Warfare and oversaw the establishment of the Information Operations Technology enter