Cyber Warfare

In a review of Shane Harris's book @War: The Rise of Cyber Warfare Toby Harden is very straight-forward in describing the ruthless way government agencies utilise the web to destroy their enemies. 'What is more startling is the capability of America, which views the cyber area as the "fifth domain" of warfare (after land, air, sea and space), to use online to kill as well as jam and hack. Harris, a writer at Foreign Policy magazine who has specialised in cyber warfare for a decade, details how US forces in Iraq became the "the vanguard of a new cyber war", sending fake text messages to insurgents that directed them to places where they would be met by US troops or a Hellfire missile." (Sunday Times, 9 November) Inside a socialist society the cyber network would be utilised as a valuable source of knowledge, education and entertainment inside capitalism it is used as a massive destructive force. RD