Blog Post #3: Conflict and Warfare in the Digital Age

The Cold War is literally old news. Many people who did not live through it know it as the time America was afraid of nuclear warfare. We know that students performed drills in which they hid under their desks, because that would obviously save them from a nuclear bomb. How quaint. Simply adorable. Yet generations too young to remember such things miss not only the seriousness of that time period but also that of our own, nicknamed the Cool War. This is not slang. This does not mean that the war is popular and has lots of people asking it to prom. What it does mean, however, is that the wonderful technology we carry in our pockets and stockpile on desks around the world also opens a new door for wars-that-are-not-wars.

Our technology is so user-friendly, so trusted, and so easy to hack. This goes for countries around the world, including those looking to attack others without leaving a clear trail behind them. For example, U.S. computers containing confidential information have been attacked by users in China and in Russia. Because there is no face-to-face aspect and no public figure publicly leading the way, there is no solid way for American intelligence agencies to know who exactly launched an attack on us. Was it the government? Rogue citizens? Underground civilian cyber warfare groups?

Without someone to hold accountable, this Cool War remains just that. If these had been declared government acts America would be forced to react much more strongly than it has and possibly start a full-out, physical attack in retaliation, thrusting the countries into "actual" war. Because of the anonymity afforded to us all by technology, authorities do not have confirmation that the governments were involved in these attacks. The last thing the world needs is a war brought on by a misunderstanding, by an assumption that governments were attacking other countries when it was actually small cells of civilians or even individuals. 

Another issue we face in this Cool War is secrecy within individual nations. The Cool War remains cool in part because everyday citizens are rarely aware of attacks waged on their home countries. If someone were to break into an official Washington D.C. government building and steal sealed documents Americans would know about it. There would be a call for action. When sealed documents stored digitally in that same building are stolen online, it is easier for our government to keep it quiet and keep us calm. Calm, ignorant, and docile. Perhaps it is better that way, at least for our government, but it seems that citizens have a right to know if they are under attack. Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to any type of warfare.

Citizens need to be made more aware of the Cool War and our nation must continue to improve its possibly vulnerable systems.