Information warfare is becoming increasingly prevalent in today’s society. As technology becomes more advanced, information warfare is becoming a war unto itself. Previously, it was part of a hybrid-warfare tactic involving information warfare and traditional warfare tactics, but war tactics are shifting to focus more on the informational warfare side and less on traditional warfare. This has both positive benefits as well as negative outcomes. It is becoming more difficult to determine who the “sides” are when it comes to informational warfare. Instead of just countries or states, informational warfare can be conducted by nonstate actors, organizations, or smaller groups of individuals with fewer resources. Also, since an attack can occur from anywhere, it can be almost impossible to determine who is doing the attacking and where the threat is coming from. This makes it hard to defend as well as retaliate.

Information warfare aims to cause disruption and chaos. It sows doubt and confusion to cause division among a country’s citizens. This makes them fight each other. It is a lot easier to win a war when you can make the enemy fight each other instead of having to fight them yourself. All this can be done without the catastrophic loss of life typically associated with war; however, the effects can be just as great or even greater than waging a traditional war. Informational warfare attacks civilians and the society that they live in, often without them even knowing. This means that we all have to constantly be on guard so that we will not fall victim to an attack. Informational warfare blends information from psychology, politics, sociology, anthropology, communication, and information technology among other subjects to create a strategic plan of attack. People using this tactic employ propaganda and disinformation as the driving forces behind their attacks. These methods are subtle and very effective.

Due to being conducted in the cyber world, geographical boundaries no longer matter, and a large number of resources are no longer required to make these tactics work. This makes anyone, anywhere vulnerable to attack. Additionally, people are spending more and more time online. This means that there are an increasing number of opportunities to conduct an attack. The war can be waged 24/7/365 without relenting. A constant barrage of disinformation and propaganda can get even the most disbelieving individual to rethink and reframe their beliefs. By breaking the society within, the attacking group can win the war before the other side even realizes that it has begun.

We must, as individuals, be on the lookout for these kinds of attacks. We must be alert to what kind of information we are consuming and how we are consuming it. We must be open to discussion and deep thought, not just blind acceptance. We must seek out the truth. It is not an easy path, but it is necessary.