Global Security and Intelligence Studies Volume 5, Number 1, Spring / Summer 2020 | Page 24

Global Security and Intelligence Studies
Figure 1. The information environment spans across all war domains,
enhanced by the use of cyber-enabled (virtual) delivery methods.
Cyberspace gives states and independent
groups a direct pathway
into the hearts and minds of individual
citizens through the internet. For
this reason, “cyber-enabled” psychological
war in the psychological domain
shares many characteristics of the cyber
domain, such as low cost of entry, the
ability to be endlessly replicated, the difficulty
of attribution, and the odds currently
being in favor of the offense over
the defense. Within the larger information
environment, activities undertaken
in cyberspace are a pathway into the
human mind, enhancing, but not solely
enabling, the activities, functions, and
operations that an adversary undertakes
to achieve its objectives. Just as an
intercontinental ballistic missile allows
nuclear warheads to be guided to their
targets thousands of miles away, the
internet allows messages to be carried
across oceans right into our pockets.
This analogy, although oversimplified,
is no less powerful—methods of delivery
that minimize the time it takes and
the distance a message has to travel can
create catastrophic outcomes for those
on the receiving end. Regardless of the
way that information travels, however,
the most important consideration
should always be what end-state the adversary
intends to create to achieve its
overall mission.
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