Strategic Warfare in Cyberspace

Rating:
Summary: A 'must-read' for information warfare policy wonks
Review: "Strategic Warfare in Cyberspace" (SWIC) takes discussions of information security policy to a new level. Lt Col Rattray is uniquely qualified to write this book, serving as commander of the 23rd Information Operations Squadron in the Air Force Information Warfare Center. While I was a captain in the Air Force Computer Emergency Response Team, he asked me if we were ready to defend against strategic information warfare attacks. His research into this issue forms the core of his excellent book.

SWIC is not written for technical staff. Rattray is a fellow Air Force Academy and Harvard University graduate, and I recognize his writing style and methodology as an effort to develop analytical frameworks. He takes an innovative approach, comparing American strategic information warfare efforts of the 1990's to development of the Army Air Corps' capability to wage strategic precision bombing. Rattray offers four enabling conditions for successful strategic warfare and five facilitating factors for establishing organization technological capabilities. He critiques strategic air war and strategic information war using these elements, drawing policy conclusions and making recommendations for future actions.

SWIC is highly original, very thorough, and well-documented. Rattray and I are both history/political science majors, so I found his discussion of Air Corps history enlightening. Readers more interested in conclusions may be tempted to skip this material. SWIC falls short in its descriptions of technical means to wage digital warfare. Someone with hands-on knowledge of specific attack and defense tools and techniques should have helped Rattray refine his understanding of the technical aspects of computer security. Nine years have passed since Farmer and Venema wrote the 'SATAN' assessment tool, yet contemporary writers still believe it exemplifies current threats. What about Nmap, which is five years old but actively maintained and used daily?

Overall, SWIC seems right on the money in its analysis and conclusions. Rattray correctly identifies that American information warfare defenses are far too crime-oriented, probably due to the FBI's role. He stresses the need to improve people and processes, not just products. He faults the government for omitting technology vendors from the protection of critical infrastructure, and criticizes federal policy mistakes regarding encryption. Government, military, and industry policymakers should read and heed Rattray's book before an adversary tests the United States' capability to wage strategic information warfare.

Rating:
Summary: Great book by someone who knows what he is taking about.
Review: Everyone and their brother is writing about security, but this book is different. The author is an expert and knows what he is taking about.

Excelling and rational book!

Rating:
Summary: Great book by someone who knows what he is taking about.
Review: Everyone and their brother is writing about security, but this book is different. The author is an expert and knows what he is taking about.

Excelling and rational book!

Rating:
Summary: A complete view of infowar
Review: In short, this a great book that introduces complex ideas in an approachable format. Reasonable detail without overkill. A must given the changing world of cyber-warfare.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful, useful, a must
Review: In short, this a great book that introduces complex ideas in an approachable format. Reasonable detail without overkill. A must given the changing world of cyber-warfare.

Rating:
Summary: excellent!
Review: Rattray lays a framework for the analysis of a growing threat to U.S. national security in the twenty-first century, information warfare (IW). While the number of studies on IW have steadily increased over the past five years, Rattray's book is unique in its sober examination of the hurdles organizations face in dealing with new technologies, as well as in its reference to the history of strategic warfare. This volume contributes to the growing literature on information warfare. It differs from other books, such as Sofaer and Goodman's Transnational Dimension of Cyber Crime, Denning's Information Warfare and Security, and Schwartau's Information Warfare in its historical analysis of U.S. strategic thinking in the inter-war period. It should be recommended to graduate and advanced undergraduate students.

Rating:
Summary: excellent!
Review: Rattray lays a framework for the analysis of a growing threat to U.S. national security in the twenty-first century, information warfare (IW). While the number of studies on IW have steadily increased over the past five years, Rattray's book is unique in its sober examination of the hurdles organizations face in dealing with new technologies, as well as in its reference to the history of strategic warfare. This volume contributes to the growing literature on information warfare. It differs from other books, such as Sofaer and Goodman's Transnational Dimension of Cyber Crime, Denning's Information Warfare and Security, and Schwartau's Information Warfare in its historical analysis of U.S. strategic thinking in the inter-war period. It should be recommended to graduate and advanced undergraduate students.