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Sun, Joshua
Professor Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
28 September 2016
Topic Proposal: The Prominence of Cyber Warfare in Future Conflicts
Introduction/Overview
On August 6th, 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped onto Hiroshima, immediately
vaporizing over 80,000 lives. The detonation of Little Boy changed the face of war and instilled
fear into all of mankind; however, a new invisible threat attacks in the darkness, sneaks past
walls, and renders the strongest militaries powerless: cyber warfare. According to the article
Cyberwar: The What, When, Why, and How, cyberwar is defined as any cyber operation
offensive of defensive, that is intended to harm people or destroy objects. In the same article, it is
stated that over 5.8 million cyber-attacks occurred solely in a period of one month, May 2013.
Nowadays, the number has increased significantly and the frequency of attacks cannot be
accurately measured due to the undetectably of more complex attacks. In recent years, a large
spectrum of groups, small terrorist organizations to world superpowers have been utilizing cyber
warfare to accomplish their goals because how it is cheaper than the production of typical
warfare. These organizations seek out vulnerabilities in systems through various hacking
techniques that can impact their desired target. In the journal article Stuxnet and the Future of
Cyber War, the United States and Israel were able to cyber-infiltrate the closed Iranian nuclear
program and dismantle the centrifuges overtime by creating a program that slowed and sped
processes while showing a message that showed normality. In my research, an overarching
theme reappeared; cyber warfare transforms widespread and expensive conflicts into an

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accessible and cheap alternative. According to Dr. Angelyn Flowers, author of Cyberwar: The
What, When, Why, How and the Graduate Program Director of the Homeland Security
Program at the University of the District of Columbia, Washington, DC, she states that While
the future of cyberwarfare in the 21st century will likely show cyberattacks that occur, not in
conjunction with traditional armed conflict, but rather stand alone in a non-kinetic battle, it is
equally as likely that these increased nonkinetic battles will have kinetic repercussions. The
effects of cyber warfare are projected be vast and fatal; however, we do not have a concrete idea
of how cyber warfare impacts the future. I, specifically, will be investigating how the growing
realm of cyber warfare affects future combats. Many people in first worlds countries have access
to a laptop or a cellphone, but many do not realize that they wield technology that can take down
nations. As cyber security, terrorism, and warfare become more prominent, how will the
accessibility to technology impact the nature of wars? Will more ordinary people become
threats? Is the threat of cyber warfare overestimated or underestimated? Will more technology
driven countries become more vulnerable? How are national defense programs changing?
I started my research reading about Stuxnet, the program that took down Iranian nuclear
centrifuges. Stuxnet and the Future of Cyber War a publication written by James P. Farwell, a
defense consultant and Senior Research Scholar in Strategic Studies at the Canada Centre for
Global Security Studies, and an article by George Will published on the National Review The
Destructive Threat of Cyberwarfare provided the history and implementation of that particular
source code and offered extra insight about how Stuxnet is going to change the future. Then,
through the librarys database, I found the article Cyberwar: The What, When, Why, and How,
which explained the general information on cyber warfare. This process allowed me to become
more informed of what truly happens during a cyber-attacks and how prevalent it is nowadays.

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As I continued my research I found an article, Cyber-terrorLooming Threat of
Phantom Menace? which addressed both points of how national security is threatened by
cyberspace terrorism and that our constant fear of cyber terrorism might be overblown. Dr.
Myriam Dunn Cavelty, Head of New Risks Research Unit is Zurich, Switzerland, states that
While governments and the media repeatedly distribute information about cyberthreats, real
cyber-attacks resulting in deaths and injuries remain largely the stuff of Hollywood movies or
conspiracy theory. In fact, menacing scenarios of major disruptive occurrences in the cyberdomain, triggered by malicious actors, have remained just that scenarios. The public eye on
cyber-attacks is one that is shrouded by false notions promoted by, partially, the lack of
knowledge of the subject and the entertainment industry. In contrary, Simon Tisdall, assistant
editor of the Guardian, advocates, Cyber-warfare attacks on military infrastructure, government
and communications systems, and financial markets pose a rapidly growing but little understood
threat to international security and could become a decisive weapon of choice in future conflicts
between states Tisdall suggests that we are all undermining the possible effects of cyberwarfare and need to become more prepared rather than underestimate the cyber-attacks.
Initial Inquiry Question(s)
How and to what extent will cyber warfare affect future conflicts?
My Interest in this Topic
I am interested in this subject matter, not solely because I am a tech wiz, but I find that
the possibility of living through a significant change in war especially appealing. Connecting
back to nuclear warfare, the atomic bomb changed war forever and people who lived through
that time did not expect it. That lack of knowledge is a crucial part in my interest in the subject.
Whether it is the creator of Stuxnet, the execution of the attacks, or the direction cyber warfare,

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all aspects of this field is shrouded with mystery, an invisible infiltration that can bring down
possibly nations. The possibilities are endless. Through my research I have learned the basic
techniques and systems that are used for cyber-attacks, the growing statistics of cyber-hacks
happening globally, and a lot about the Stuxnet attack that was able to cripple an entire nuclear
program. I hope to learn more about how national defense programs are changing, how security
measures are changing, to what extent it is impacting us now and in the future. How are they
implementing cyber-attacks? How are satellites being targeted? I want to examine the history in
order to try to understand the future.
Next Steps
I will be reading a lot more, exploring books in the library, articles in the National Review, New
York Times, The Guardian, and looking into the database to find scholarly journals and
publications on cyber security, cyber warfare, cyber terrorism, and more. Through more research,
I will begin to compile information and resources in a form of an annotated bibliography, which
will direct me in making an outline. Finally, I will start writing the draft.

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Works Cited
Cavelty, Myriam Dunn. "Cyber-TerrorLooming Threat or Phantom Menace? The Framing of the US
Cyber-Threat Debate." Journal of Information Technology & Politics 4.1 (2008): 19-36. Taylor
Francis Online. Web.
Flowers, Angelyn, and Sherali Zeadally. "Cyberwar: The What, When, Why, and How." IEEE
Technology and Society Magazine (n.d.): n. pag. IEEE. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.
<http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6901336>.
Rohozinski, Rafal, and James P. Farwell. "Stuxnet and the Future of Cyber War." Survival 53.1 (2011):
23-40. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.
<https://www.cs.duke.edu/courses/common/compsci092/papers/cyberwar/stuxnet2.pdf>.
Tisdall, Simon. "Cyber-warfare 'is Growing Threat'" The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 03 Feb.
2010. Web. 29 Sept. 2016. <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/feb/03/cyberwarfare-growing-threat>.
Will, George. "The Destructive Threat of Cyberwarfare." National Review. N.p., 14 Apr. 2016. Web. 28
Sept. 2016. <http://www.nationalreview.com/article/434026/cyberwar-war-future-nationalsecurity-threats>.