Cyber Operations and Cyber Terrorism

Information technology (IT) and digitization are integral elements woven into the virtual
fabric of today’s society. Whether in our personal or professional lives, the cyber world
has become a dominant factor in everyday life. The CIA pointed out in a statement for
the Joint Economic Committee in 2001, “Most experts agree that the IT revolution
represents the most significant global transformation since the Industrial Revolution
beginning in the mid-eighteenth century.”1 The increasingly indispensable nature of
information technology, however, has transformed these systems into high value targets
of cyber terrorists and presents a significant threat to the military, our economy and
national security.

To highlight the importance of this technology to the U.S. military, in July 2003, DOD
had more than 3 million individual computers on 12,000 local area networks (LANs).
These interconnected systems and LANs are part of what is known as the Global
Information Grid (GIG).