Information Operations and Cyberwar: Capabilities and Related Policy Issues

This report describes the emerging areas of information operations in the context of U.S. national security. It assesses known U.S. capabilities and plans, and suggests related policy issues of potential interest to Congress. This report will be updated to accommodate significant changes. For military planners, the control of information is critical to military success, and communications networks and computers are of vital operational importance. The use of technology to both control and disrupt the flow of information has been referred to by several names: information warfare, electronic warfare, cyberwar, netwar, and Information Operations (IO). The U.S. Department of Defense has grouped IO activities into five core capabilities: Psychological Operations, Military Deception, Operational Security, Computer Network Operations, and Electronic Warfare. Doctrine for U.S. IO now places new emphasis on Psychological Operations to influence the decisionmaking of possible adversaries, and on Electronic Warfare to dominate the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Some weapons used for IO are also referred to as non-kinetic, and include high power microwave (HPM) or other directed electromagnetic energy weapons that rely on short powerful electromagnetic pulses (EMP), that can overpower and permanently degrade computer circuitry.