Coder, hacker, soldier, spy

Abstract

A cyber attack is best understood not as an end in itself, but as a means to a wide variety of ends, some of which have serious legal, political, military, or economic ramifications. Cyber attacks may be employed for any purpose: espionage, crime, activism, terrorism, or war. They are used for competitive advantage in any and every form of human conflict. This chapter seeks to help cyber defenders classify attacks appropriately so that they can most efficiently allocate finite resources to combat this rising threat.