These computer systems use communication pathways and software tools that frequently are not under the control of the Department of Defense. We're told that maybe ten percent of DOD's computer traffic is classified and moves on very secure systems. The other 90 percent of DOD data is unclassified and moves along poorly secured pathways, the majority of which are not government-owned or operated. These pathways include telephone lines, cable, satellite feeds, even microwaves. Each is susceptible to monitoring, infiltration and manipulation.
Information warfare is based on that fact.
Its battlefields are the pathways over which computer data is transmitted. The weapons are software programs that can read, intercept and even alter the data moving from one military computer to another. The names of these new weapons are colorful. They include sniffers, phone phreaking, worms, Trojan horses, logic bombs and more. The stereotype of someone who breaks into computer systems is the teenage hacker playing games.