Five good reasons for NATO’s pragmatic approach to offensive cyberspace operations

Jensen, Mikkel Storm

doi:10.1080/14702436.2022.2080661

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Thus, Hughes and Colarick's assumption of information sharing on CNA represents a special case, not the default situation in NATO. Hence, unlike with conventional means, NATO has not attempted to coordinate the members' CNA; it has, rather, created mechanisms to allow it to be integrated in operations with NATO's permission, but without sharing information on the means and their effects (Jensen, 2022).…”

Section: What Is the Role Of Denmark's New Offensive Cyber Capabilities?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, since offensive cyber means are kept exceptionally secret due to operational needs, they represent a unique opportunity to impress allies with a little swagger and to deter opponents through the simple implication that a state possesses effective cyber weaponry (Montgomery, 2020, p. 312). They also have disadvantages, however, which make them hard to wield through alliances: due to CNA's extraordinarily high need for secrecy to ensure efficacy, they are far more difficult, perhaps insurmountably so, to coordinate between allies (Jensen, 2022). Finally, CNA differ from conventional military means, being increasingly used by states as instruments for inflicting of damage on opponents with substantially less risk of crossing a threshold to instigate armed conflict than would be incurred by the use of conventional weapons (ODNI, 2021, p. 20).…”

Section: Danish F-35s -Ideal "Plug and Play" Means For Prestige And P...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unlike the F-35, CNA capabilities do not perfectly fit the mould for the utility and influence of small allies. In the main, this is because they are very likely to be kept completely secret at the national level and not shared with allies (Jensen, 2022). The limited information available suggests that sharing even non-cyber related classified information within NATO has been a longstanding challenge (Atkeson, 2009;Binnendijk & Priebe, 2019, p. 50;de Graaff, 2017;Dempsey, 2017;Gramer, 1999, pp.…”

Section: Cna Vs F-35 -Less Influence On Protection More Risk Of Entra...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Denmark’s Offensive Cyber Capabilities: Questionable Assets for Prestige, New Risks of Entrapment

Jensen

2022

Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies

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In 2019, Denmark declared its military offensive cyber capability operational. This article analyses how this capacity compares to another recent acquisition, the F-35 multirole combat aircraft, in Denmark's general military security strategy. Snyder's article, "The Security Dilemma in Alliance Politics", from 1984 explain why and how the strategic challenge for Danish decision-makers is to minimize the risk of abandonment by the United States while avoiding becoming involuntarily entrapped in U.S. conflicts (Snyder, 1984). Denmark has consciously sought to balance this dilemma since joining NATO in 1949. This article shows that the F-35 acquisition is well suited for this strategy and that the new offensive cyber capacity functions differently, creating new risks of entrapment. While this does not disqualify offensive cyber as a useful Danish military capability, it does imply that decision makers must evaluate offensive cyber on terms other than those of conventional means.

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Section: What Is the Role Of Denmark's New Offensive Cyber Capabilities?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Danish F-35s -Ideal "Plug and Play" Means For Prestige And P...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cna Vs F-35 -Less Influence On Protection More Risk Of Entra...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Denmark’s Offensive Cyber Capabilities: Questionable Assets for Prestige, New Risks of Entrapment

Jensen

2022

Scandinavian Journal of Military Studies

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Narrow windows of opportunity: the limited utility of cyber operations in war

Pedersen,

Jacobsen

2024

Journal of Cybersecurity

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The use of offensive cyber operations in war is no longer theoretical conjecture. Still, as we witness their use, important questions remain. How are offensive cyber operations employed in conventional warfighting, and what is their utility for the warfighting? This article answers these questions by analyzing new empirical evidence from the Russo–Ukrainian War, drawing on the novel TECI-model built for systematically analyzing and understanding offensive cyber operations in war through the model’s four constituent variables: target, effect, complexity, and integration. The article finds the utility of cyber operations in war is limited owing to an unsuitability for physical destruction, high risks of failure, high costs of complex operations that are more likely to attain successful and destructive effects, and a dichotomy between the tempi of conventional and cyber operations leading to cross-domain integration difficulties. Still, two narrow windows for achieving utility exist. Cumulative strategic utility is achievable by targeting critical infrastructure and governments in a persistent barrage of less complex cyber operations. Operational and tactical utility is achievable in the beginning of warfighting where the temporal dichotomy is less pronounced because cross-domain integration can be planned before warfighting commences. Filling a gap in the literature, TECI provides a common and operationalized model for future research systematically analyzing cyber operations, allowing for comparisons on the evolving role of cyberspace in war.

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Five good reasons for NATO’s pragmatic approach to offensive cyberspace operations

Cited by 2 publications

References 26 publications

Denmark’s Offensive Cyber Capabilities: Questionable Assets for Prestige, New Risks of Entrapment

Denmark’s Offensive Cyber Capabilities: Questionable Assets for Prestige, New Risks of Entrapment

Narrow windows of opportunity: the limited utility of cyber operations in war

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