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August 23, 2018 | International, C4ISR

3 trends in the future of cyber conflict

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There is a lot of hype about cyber or digital war, especially considering how cyber has become a vector allowing nations and organizations to achieve objectives below thresholds of conflict.

In this new cyber and digital conflict domain, traditional conceptions are being flipped on their heads.

Here are three potential trends that could factor into this increasingly dynamic environment.

For one, data is becoming a natural resource, Col. Steve Rehn, the cyber capability manager for the Army Cyber Center of Excellence, said Aug. 22 during a presentation at TechNet Augusta.

Rehn predicts that at some point there will be a conflict based purely on data based on the harvesting of data and the protection of data.

The desire for data will be so great and so critical that nation states are going to want to defend and go after it.

China is largely believed to be behind the breach of millions of personnel files from the Office of Personnel Management in 2015, which experts believe. Experts believe the purloining of this data, which includes the most sensitive personal information for federal employees with security clearance, was done solely for espionage and counterintelligence, not for economic gain as none of the information such as social security numbers have appeared on the dark web for sale.

Full article: https://www.c4isrnet.com/show-reporter/technet-augusta/2018/08/22/3-trends-in-the-future-of-cyber-conflict

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