Introduction 1

Through a range of articles which suggest different and additional approaches, and following in the footsteps of the French experts in this domain, this book takes us into the concepts of information warfare and cyberwar.

Information warfare above all expresses the concept of conflict and the position of information in this context, and it brings conflict into the perspectives of technology and the information society. It is both a war in cyberspace, and a war of ideas. In Ecran/Ennemi, François-Bernard Huyghe1 defines information warfare as “any activity intended to get data and knowledge (and to deprive the enemy from it) for strategic means, either by systems (vectors and means of processing the information), or by content, by ensuring informational domination. Under its offensive perspective, it refers to any operation resorting to rumor, propaganda, computer viruses which corrupt or hijack an opponent’s information or data flow, whether this is a State, an army, or a political or economic entity”2. It may also be understood as the aggressive/defensive use of components of informational space (information and information systems) in order to hit/protect the sovereignty of a State, by action taken in times of peace, crisis, or conflict [VEN 09].

Cyberwar, a technical dimension of information warfare, may be defined as the recourse to cybernetic capabilities to lead aggressive operations in cyberspace, against military targets, against a State or its society. It ...

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