The Threat

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Personal Perspective

From a liberal (privacy advocate) perspective, the government is the threat.

The level of threat (their perspective) is high due to perceived unlimited funding and access.

Note: there is typically a low level of trust between the people and their government.

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Corporate Perspective

From a business perspective, there is both an internal and external threat.

External - corporate plans, policy, trade secrets, e.g., the Texas Instruments (TI) case. In the TI case system programmers were found to be agents of the French government. Their clandestine mission was to steal the design of a new chip designed for future automotive engine management systems.

Internal - the disgruntled employee.

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Somalia

U.S. involvement in Somalia provides excellent proof that information warfare can be successfully executed by small organizations with limited finances against much larger well financed adversaries.

Aideed succeeded because his intelligence forces were small, well deployed, highly maneuverable, and used cellular phones and tricks such as bouncing signals off of city walls to foil U.S. attempts to pinpoint sources.

Aideed's ultimate success was in using this strategy to set up an ambush of U.S. troops which was naturally televised via CNN into every American home. This psychological information warfare operation, which included televised images of dead Americans being dragged through the streets, succeeded in eliminating most public support for U.S. involvement in Somalia, and very soon afterwards, the U.S. pulled out.

Source: Magsig, D.E., Information Warfare: In the Information Age, George Washington University, December 7, 1995.

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