The IT Law Wiki
The IT Law Wiki

Definitions[]

Cyberpower (also spelled cyber power)

[is] the ability to use cyberspace to create advantages and influence events in the other operational environments and across the instruments of power.[1]
can be defined in terms of a set of resources that relate to the creation, control and communication of electronic and computer-based informationinfrastructure, networks, software and human skills. This includes the Internet of networked computers, but also intranets, mesh nets, cellular technologies, cables and space-based communications.[2]
can be understood as the ability to act and influence through, and by means of, cyberspace.[3]

Overview[]

"[C]yberpower is always a measure of the ability to use . . . [cyberspace]. Technology is one obvious factor, because the ability to 'enter' cyberspace is what makes it possible to use it. That technology is constantly changing, and some users — countries, societies, non state actors, etc — may be able to leap over old technologies to deploy and use new ones to dramatic advantage. Organizational factors also play an important role, because the organizations we create reflect human purposes and objectives, and their perspectives on the creation and use of cyberpower will be shaped by their organizational mission, be it military, economic, political, etc. All of these different factors shape how we employ cyberpower to impact and influence all of the elements of power. [¶] The element which is most closely tied to cyberpower is information."[4]

"Cyber power can be used to produce preferred outcomes within cyberspace, or it can use cyber instruments to produce preferred outcomes in other domains outside cyberspace."[5].

"[A] State's cyber power can manifest itself along three dimensions:

  1. integrated government capabilities, being the ability to coordinate operational and policy aspects across governmental structures,
  2. integrated system capability, being the ability to create coherency of policy through international alliances and legal frameworks, and
  3. integrated national capability, being the coordination of the activities of non-State actors (industry and social society) in a State and within a State's own structures."[6]

References[]

  1. Daniel T. Kuehl, "From Cyberspace to Cyberpower: Defining the Problem," in Cyberpower and National Security 48 (Franklin D. Kramer, Stuart H. Starr & Larry K. Wentz, eds. 2009) (full-text).
  2. Peacetime Regime for State Activities in Cyberspace: International Law, International Relations and Diplomacy, at 5.
  3. Id. at 1.
  4. Daniel T. Kuehl, "From Cyberspace to Cyberpower: Defining the Problem," in Cyberpower and National Security 48 (Franklin D. Kramer, Stuart H. Starr & Larry K. Wentz, eds. 2009) (full-text).
  5. Peacetime Regime for State Activities in Cyberspace: International Law, International Relations and Diplomacy, at 5.
  6. Alexander Klimburg, "Mobilising Cyber Power," Survival, 53(1), at 41 (2011) (doi:10.1080/00396338.201 1.555595) (full-text).