Irregular Warfare— A violent struggle among state and non-state actors for
legitimacy and influence over the relevant populations.
COMPUTER WARFARE
1-99. Computer warfare consists of attacks that focus specifically on the computer systems, networks, and nodes. This includes a wide variety of activities, ranging from unauthorized access (hacking) of information systems for intelligence-collection purposes, to the insertion of malicious software (viruses, worms, logic bombs, or Trojan horses). Such attacks concentrate on the denial, disruption, or manipulation of the infrastructure‘s integrity. The irregular force may attempt to accomplish these activities through the use of agents or third-party individuals with direct access to enemy information systems. Other avenues to access and attack systems include communications via the Internet.
1-100. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks use a network of slave computers to overwhelm target computers with packets of data and deny them outgoing access to networks. Such attacks could disrupt logistics, communications, intelligence, and other functions. The irregular force will employ various types of malicious software or malware on enemy computers to slow operations, extract data, or inject data. Poor operational procedures can enable this type of attack and cause significant loss of either capability or spillage of data or a combination of both effects. These attacks also cause the enemy to waste data time and cycles in prevention and remediation. Malware could affect internal clocks, such as creating positional errors and communications difficulties, and slow the functional speed of computing.
1-101. Irregular force computer warfare activities may be conducted prior to or during a military action. By damaging or destroying networks related to an enemy‘s projected force deployments and troop movements, the irregular force can effectively disrupt plans, misdirect movements, and cause substantial confusion and delays in operational timetables. As modern military forces increasingly rely on just-in-time logistics support, targeting logistics-related computers and databases can produce delays in the arrival of critical manpower or materiel such as ammunition, fuel, and spare parts during critical phases of a conflict.