Supporting Resistance Movements in Cyberspace

ABSTRACT

One of United States Special Operations Forces’ (SOF) core missions is support to unconventional warfare (UW). As SOF continues competing with states below the level of armed conflict, it must adapt to and capitalize on advances in technology to enable support to resistance movements. Other states, namely Russia, have capitalized on digital technologies in their undeclared, hybrid conflicts. The U.S., which will likely find itself on the other side of those conflicts, must rethink and update how it supports resistance movements. We suggest why to make this change now, and in the process offer cyber-based proposals that could be employed in support to resistance

KEYWORDS:

• Resistance
• unconventional warfare
• cyberspace

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

DISCLAIMER

In accordance with 5 CFR 2635.807, the disclaimer certifies the views presented are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of DoD, USSOCOM, or its components.

Notes

1. The Oxford Dictionary of Economics defines labor theory of value as “value of goods and services determined by the amount of directed and indirect labor inputs need to produce or provide them.”

2. States within the Russian sphere of influence are typically associated with those states that made up parts of the former-Soviet Union.

3. Short for malicious software, is a blanket term for software used to wreak destruction and gain access to sensitive information.

4. Herding is the phenomenon of individuals deciding to follow others and imitating group behaviors rather than deciding independently on the basis of their own, private information.

5. A DNS is like a phonebook in that it returns the physical location of website addresses. Once the website is located by the DNS, the internet protocol address of the server is returned with the sought after information.

6. Section 1202 of the Fiscal Year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act provides support to foreign forces, irregular forces, groups, or individuals engaged in supporting or facilitating ongoing or future authorized irregular warfare operations by SOF.

7. A security model based on the principle of maintaining strict access controls and not trusting anyone by default.