The new battlespace is generating terrorist acts capable of crippling U.S. military computer systems. It is not only just the threat from a sea-skimming antiship cruise missile or a random Scud attack that sends chills down the spines of senior defense department officials, but also the offensive information warfare threat from rogue governments and terrorist groups practicing information warfare.
Information warfare is the new operational battlespace.
Through information warfare and cyber terrorism, terrorists and foreign governments can accomplish their political objectives without firing a physical bullet. All it takes is a hacker who can gain access to a government or military classified network. The hacker can then plant an information bomb or computer virus that is designed to destroy or render computer networks, which control weapon systems, financial transactions and a host of other communications traffic, inoperable. In the area of information and infrastructure security, the number of penetrations into commercial, military and infrastructure-related computer systems has soared. Sophistication of the threat is evolving quickly.