The relevance of research in the field of information warfare and information warfare, the versatility of the methods and forms of this work both in practical and in scientific terms is determined by the fact that at present any country needs to form an effective system of counteraction to operations related to information-psychological wars, the development of which is carried out by the state. In this article we will analyze the definition, tasks, varieties and goals of information wars.
General Provisions
It is no secret to anyone that today the forces of information warfare are seen as an effective tool for implementing the state’s foreign policy. It is worth considering that the information-psychological war in one way or another allows you to intensively influence various processes at almost all levels of social and state structure in any region or country.
The totality of problems existing in this area can be explained by the discrepancy between the objective need associated with the formation of such a system and the rather low level of readiness of modern society to actively resist any attempts to manipulate their own consciousness.
One of the characteristics of the information warfare, information warfare is that the mass consciousness has not yet formed a complete understanding of the threat posed by modern technologies in the field of communication, provided they have a hidden informational and psychological impact. By the way, this is often used for political purposes.
What other contradictions exist?
Another contradiction of the information warfare model is that in the process of conducting information wars the same basic elements, communication methods, modern technologies are used as in other processes of a social nature. This moment should be remembered. So, the targeted impact of an informational and psychological nature on a person is a type of social plan relationship. It is in this that there is a special danger of informational confrontation. Every year it is characterized by more and more hidden forms.
In the world there is another problem that can be considered as a motive for numerous studies. We are talking about the absolute discrepancy between the rate of development of innovations in information-psychological aggression, which are to some extent social, and the technologies of protecting consciousness, mental health and the value system of a person in psychological terms.
We will try to maximally accurately disclose the category of modern information warfare, the importance of new communication technologies in conflicts and confrontations in society with an analysis of their use as a weapon in the process of manipulating the consciousness of the masses.
Definition of Information Wars
Since time immemorial, humanity has been faced with this issue. Arrows, bow, guns, tanks and swords - all this, as a rule, ended in the defeat of the community, which had previously been defeated in the information plan war. This must be taken into account in the process of studying the modern information warfare system.
It was the technological revolution that caused the concept of the information era. The fact is that communication systems have become an essential component of human life and have changed it radically. In addition, the information era has adjusted the methodology for conducting combat operations by providing commanders with quality data in an unprecedented amount. Today, the commander has the opportunity to observe the process of combat battles, to analyze events and make appropriate further decisions.
It is necessary to be able to distinguish between the concepts of "info war" and "information warfare." The first concept involves the use of technology as a means of successfully carrying out hostilities. The confrontation, on the contrary, considers information flows as a potential weapon or a separate object, as well as, to one degree or another, a profitable goal. It is worth noting that modern technology has turned into a reality the possibility of a theoretical plan related to the direct manipulation of the enemy with the help of information.
The emergence of information
The forms of information confrontation that exist today are inextricably linked to the sources of data. It's no secret that information appears on the basis of events taking place in the world. So they must be perceived and interpreted in some way in order to turn into complete information. That is why the latter is the result of two components: the perception of data (in other words, events) and the commands that are necessary for their interpretation; the binding of certain values with them.
It should be borne in mind that the definition of information warfare is in no way connected with the technology used. However, what we have the right to do with information and how quickly we can produce it, first of all, depends on the quality of communications.
That is why it is advisable to introduce such a term as “information function”. We are talking about any activity related to the receipt, subsequent transfer, storage and possible transformation of information. Under the quality of information, it is advisable to consider the indicator of the complexity of the used methods of information warfare. The better data the commander possesses, the more advantages he has in comparison with the other side.
The challenges of confrontation
Further, it is advisable to determine the tasks of information confrontation. It is about the performance of any informative functions that provide or improve the solution of combat missions by troops. From a conceptual point of view, we can say that each state seeks to possess information that fully ensures the implementation of its goals. In addition, it wishes to use this information, as well as to ensure their quality protection.
This is done for political, economic or military purposes of information warfare. It is worth noting that knowledge of the enemy’s data serves as a means of significantly enhancing one’s own power and lowering the enemy’s strength, resisting it, and protecting relevant values, which include information. This "weapon" has a certain effect on the information held by the enemy, and on its informational functionality. At the same time, our "rear" is considered protected, which allows us to reduce the degree of the will of the enemy, the number of his capabilities that could potentially be used in the fight.
In accordance with these data, it is advisable to define information warfare. This is any operation associated with the use, destruction, distortion of enemy information, as well as its functions; with the protection of their own information against a similar impact; using military tactics of communicative significance.
Types of Information Wars
Consider the types of information warfare that exist today. Paying attention to the flow of accents of systemic conflicts from a material form to an information form, we can conclude that dealing with the phenomenon of wars is a very important task, but not as easy as it seems at first glance.
In this area, both in Russia and abroad, considerable confusion can be observed. For example, M. Libitsky, one of the founders of the theory of inf. wars and developers of their aspects in practical terms, it identifies either 5 or 7 varieties of information warfare in the Russian Federation. It is important to keep in mind: in terms of content and in practice, there are 3 main types of confrontation:
- Psychological (mental).
- Behavioral.
- Cyber warfare.
It is worth adding that cyber warfare, as well as psychological (mental) wars are classified in accordance with the means of information warfare and objects of military influence. Under the psychological need to understand the content of "fighting", which set a goal associated with a change in individual, group or mass consciousness.
It should be noted that in the process of mental confrontation, a struggle develops for values, minds, attitudes, and so on. The psychological information confrontation in the conflict was conducted long before the advent of the Internet. It has a history that cannot be measured in hundreds or thousands of years. You need to know that through the World Wide Web these confrontations were transferred to a qualitatively and fundamentally different level of scale, intensity and efficiency.
As for cyber war, they should be understood as a destructive purposeful effect of information flows in the form of program codes directly on objects of material nature and their systems. Former high-ranking official, and now an expert on US government security, Richard A. Clark, formed a complete definition of cyber warfare. So, this is the action of one state with penetration into the networks or computers of another to achieve the goals of destruction or damage to the latter.
It is worth noting that cyber warfare and mental information warfare in conflict are varieties of wars that are waged in an electronic network space that covers not only the Internet, but also military, private, corporate and state-owned networks of a closed type. It is worth noting that each of the presented types is determined by its tools, strategies, techniques, tactics, warning capabilities and patterns of escalation.
Behavioral Wars
The category of behavioral wars should be considered separately, since it is quite large-scale and has a fundamentally excellent information warfare management system.
Today it is almost impossible to find Western publications that are dedicated to this topic. First of all, the situation is associated with extreme delicacy, in particular, for the Western public point of view. In addition, the totality of opportunities related to the conduct of full-fledged behavioral wars appeared only recently due to the accumulation of extremely large arrays of objective information regarding human behavior, in particular, social and other groups of different sizes. This information is usually contained on the Internet, which serves as a factual behavioral archive.
It should be noted that the possibilities of behavioral type wars are associated with tools, the development of which is carried out at the junction of Big Data, cognitive computing and an interdisciplinary body of psychological sciences. It has been well known for a long time that Russian scientists made a special contribution to the development of this business. They found that a person’s behavior substantially depends not only on his values, ideas or beliefs, it is based on habits, stereotypes, patterns of a behavioral type, and is also formed as a result of the influence of social institutions of a formal and informal nature.
Scientists have proved that the individual, in accordance with his psychophysiology, like any creature, wants to solve problems subject to the least expenditure of energy and other resources. That is why a significant proportion of human behavior is realized in a kind of semi-automatic mode, in other words, based on stereotypes and habits. This applies not only to elementary functions of the behavioral type, but also to standard situations that arise in life.
Our habits, cultural stereotypes, and behavioral patterns seriously affect us even in difficult situations connected with a choice that, at first glance, requires the mobilization of conscious resources and deep thought. With all this, it is well known that human activity is not reduced to his psychology - it is determined by social character.
The goals of information warfare
To date, it is customary to distinguish three main objectives of the "ether" wars:
- Control of the information space in order to make it possible to use it, provided that the military informational functionality is protected from enemy actions.
- The use of information control in order to conduct information attacks against the enemy.
- Improving the overall effectiveness of the armed forces through the widespread use of military information functionality.
Subjects of information wars
What applies to the subjects of information warfare? So, we will consider them separately:
- States, their coalitions and unions. It is important to note that this subject, as a rule, is endowed with constant interests in the information space; creates and controls the union information space, integrated into the global, and also acts as its segment. Forms special structural units and forces, one of the functions of which is maintaining inf. confrontation. Develops, and subsequently tests, systems and models of communicative weapons, means of camouflage and delivery, as well as the principles of combat use. Forms and consolidates ideological and conceptual provisions, which are the rationale for the need to participate in this confrontation.
- International organizations. It is worth noting that this subject of information warfare is usually endowed with stable interests in this segment. It takes part in the creation of a global information space and partially ensures control of national elements in it, forms within its own structures or applies nat. structures that are integrated into organizations of an international type (the function and task of them is the conduct of confrontation). Creates and applies its scientific and technical potential, develops and officially establishes ideological and conceptual provisions that serve as the rationale for the need to participate in information wars.
- Illegal non-state armed organizations and extremist, terrorist, radical religious and political groups. You need to know that this subject is endowed with interests in the information space: creates its own segment in it, seeks to control or capture elements of global or national importance. It develops forces within its own or allied organizations, the tasks and functions of which include the conduct of information wars. Forms and applies its scientific and technical potential, develops, and subsequently consolidates, at the level of its own official strategy, ideological and conceptual provisions that serve as the rationale for the need to participate in informational news.
- Transnational corporations. This subject of information warfare is endowed with the same signs of subjectivity as organizations of the international type.
Conclusion
So, we fully examined the concept, definition, varieties, goals and objectives of information wars. In conclusion, it is advisable to analyze their specific consequences. So, the explosion of a certain amount of grenades can hardly be called a war. It does not matter who will throw them. On the other hand, the explosion of one or another number of hydrogen bombs is a war begun and at the same time completed. It should be noted that the information propaganda of the 50s - 60s, which was carried out by the USA and the USSR, is comparable with a certain number of grenades. That is why no one will call the past confrontation infovoy. At best, it deserves the term cold war.
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It is possible to force an adversary to change his own behavior through hidden and explicit, internal and external threats of an informational nature. It must be borne in mind that in such a confrontation, priority is usually given to hidden threats. The fact is that they are the ones that help to cultivate internal danger and purposefully control the system from the outside.
It is worth remembering that public relations today play an important role. Initially designed to inform the public about the main events in the life of the country and the authorities, they gradually began to perform another function related to influencing the consciousness of their audience in order to form a certain attitude to the reported facts and phenomena of reality. This effect is carried out through propaganda and agitation methods developed by mankind over several thousand years.