From the fog of war to the blizzard of information: Big data and defence

As the military and security worlds become increasingly reliant on smart ICT systems for campaign planning and communications, a problem is beginning to become apparent: how best to handle the data that is gathered. Modern operations rely on communications to enable commanders in the field to reach back to the firm base for both technical and political guidance, and to reach forward to unit commanders. Remotely Piloted Aerial Systems (RPASs) pass continuous video feeds back to HQ for analysis. At the same time modern fifth generation aircraft such as the F35 transmit large amounts of information about its engineering and sensors performance. Welcome to the world of Big Data, writes Nick Watts.

The US government is worried about "the enemy within." The 9/11 attackers were able to communicate with each other and to undertake their pre-attack activities without the US government stopping them. Not that they weren't detected. Suspicious activity was reported locally by the FBI, but the information didn't trigger any alarms. The Boston bombers and other home grown attackers have been able to access jihadist material through the internet. People who are liable to radicalisation tend to visit known web-sites. Prism is one way of enabling US government agencies to detect the enemy within. Nick Watts, Deputy Director General of the U K Defence Forum, puts the current furore into context.

By Oliver Jones

Much has been made over recent years of the emerging threat of "cyber-attacks" on Western targets. Governments have become increasingly vocal on these threats, publishing a range of materials and proposing a number of policies. In the United States the government has taken steps which include the establishment of the US "Cyber-Command", alongside the US senate debating a so called "kill switch bill", which proposes to grant the president emergency powers over the internet. In the UK the cyber threat is also a growing concern. The recent Strategic Defence and Security Review and the UK National Security Strategy have both identified the sphere of "cyber Security" as a "Tier 1" threat or risk . Outside of government circles the issue is also becoming increasingly debated. Recently the popular periodicals "Foreign Affairs" and "The New Yorker" have both released articles detailing and debating the issue.

What however is the threat from this new "cyber domain", does it represent a new paradigm in warfare? Popular perceptions stemming from fictitious sources, such as the 2007 blockbuster Die Hard 4.0 in which the US comes under assault from "cyber-Terrorists" who target key infrastructure to cause a "fire sale" attack with potentially devastating consequences, suggest that cyber-warfare represents a devastating new strategic weapon capable of the kind of destruction only previously threatened by "WMD's". What's more the threat of cyber-attack is also characterised as being an emerging "asymmetric" threat. This idea of cyber-war is also lent credence from sources such as "Unrestricted Warfare," a proposal for Chinese military strategy, written by two Peoples Liberation Army colonels, whereby China seeks to beat a technologically and military superior opponent through the use of imaginative strategies which utilise measures that avoid direct military confrontation and instead attack their adversary through other avenues. Also adding to this perception of the cyber threat are the events like those in Estonia in 2007, where the Government and other sectors came under sustained denial of service attacks during a diplomatic spat with Russia over the relocation of "the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn". This and similar ideas certainly suggest that cyber-war does represent a threat in this way and this idea has been championed by American authorities on cyber-war. Richard A. Clarke, a former White House official with responsibility for the field, this year published "Cyberwar" a proposal for US strategy which prophesizes a particularly apocalyptic vision of a Chinese cyber-attack with mass casualties.