Affordability of cyber-warfare

Author

Georgios Valaouras

Description

Nations are becoming increasingly aware that the use of cyber strategies can be a major force multiplier and equaliser.

The federally budgeted military expenditure of the United States Department of Defense for fiscal year 2007 is $439.3 Billion. The US is responsible for 46% of the world total military expenditure, distantly followed by the UK, France, Japan and China with 4%-5% each.

Smaller countries that could never compete in a conventional military sense with their larger neighbours can develop a capability that gives them a strategic advantage, if properly utilised. As a RAND Corporation study pointed out in the mid-1990s, the entry costs for conducting cyber war are extremely modest. Not surprisingly, therefore, countries that are not as dependent on high technology within their military establishment consider such dependence a potential "Achilles heel" for their enemies.

Enablers

1. Low cost of required infrastructure: Developing cyber weapons does not require the massive infrastructure usually associated with conventional arms.
   

Inhibitors

1. The need for specialized personnel: A country's cyber-warfare capacity is determined not only by the available technological infrastructure, but by the competence of the personnel that it employs as well. The procedure of finding and acquiring the most talented and highly trained programmers can be difficult, costly and time consuming.