Information confrontation: definition, goals, objectives and types

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

The relevance of research in the field of information warfare and information confrontation, the versatility of the methods and forms of this work, both in practical and scientific terms, is determined by the fact that at present any country needs to form an effective system to counter operations related to information-psychological wars, the development of which is carried out by the state. In this article, we will analyze the definition, tasks, varieties and goals of information wars.

General provisions

It's no secret that today the forces of information confrontation are considered as an effective tool for implementing the state's foreign policy. It should be taken into account that the information-psychological warfare in one way or another makes it possible to influence various processes in an intensive way at almost all levels of society and society.government in any region or country.

The set of problems that exist in this area can be explained by the discrepancy between the objective need associated with the formation of such a system and the rather low level of readiness of modern society to actively resist any attempts to manipulate its own consciousness.

One of the characteristics of information confrontation, information wars is that the mass consciousness has not yet formed a complete understanding of the threat posed by modern technologies in the field of communication, subject to their hidden information and psychological impact. By the way, this is often used for political purposes.

What other contradictions exist?

Another contradiction of the information warfare model is that in the process of conducting information wars, the same basic elements, communication methods, modern technologies are used as in other processes of a social nature. This point should be remembered. Thus, the targeted impact of informational and psychological nature on a person is a kind of social relationship. This is where the particular danger of information confrontation lies. Every year it is characterized by more and more hidden forms.

There is another problem in the world that can be considered as the motive of numerous studies. We are talking about the absolute discrepancy between the speed of development of innovations of information and psychological aggression, which are into some extent social, and technologies for protecting consciousness, mental he alth and the system of human values in psychological terms.

We will try as accurately as possible to reveal the category of modern information confrontation, the significance of new communication technologies in conflicts and confrontations in society with an analysis of their use as a weapon in the process of manipulating the consciousness of the masses.

Definition of information wars

From time immemorial, mankind has faced this issue. Arrows, bows, cannons, tanks and swords - all this, as a rule, ended in the defeat of a community that had previously been defeated in an information war. This must be taken into account in the process of studying the modern system of information warfare.

It was the technological revolution that gave rise to the concept of the information age. The fact is that communication systems have become the most important component of human life and have changed it radically. In addition, the information age has adjusted the way combat is conducted by providing commanders with unprecedented amounts of quality data. Already today, the commander has the opportunity to observe the process of combat battles, analyze the events and make appropriate further decisions.

It is necessary to be able to distinguish between the concepts of "infowar" and "information confrontation". The first concept involves the use of technology asmeans of successful combat operations. Confrontation, on the contrary, considers information flows as a potential weapon or a separate object, as well as, to one degree or another, a profitable goal. It is worth noting that modern technologies have turned into reality the possibility of a theoretical plan associated with the direct manipulation of the enemy with the help of information.

The emergence of information

The forms of information confrontation that exist today are inextricably linked with the sources of data. It's no secret that information appears on the basis of events taking place in the world around us. So they must be perceived and interpreted in some way in order to turn into full-fledged information. That is why the latter is the result of two components: perception of data (in other words, events) and commands that are necessary for their interpretation; binding certain values to them.

It should be borne in mind that the definition of information confrontation has nothing to do with the technology used. However, what we have the right to do with information and how quickly we can do it depends primarily on the quality of communications.

That is why it is advisable to introduce such a term as "information function". We are talking about any activity related to the receipt, subsequent transfer, storage and possible transformation of information. Under the quality of information, it is advisable to consider the indicator of complexityused methods of information confrontation. The better data a commander has, the more advantage he has over the other side.

Confrontational tasks

Next, it is advisable to define the tasks of information confrontation. We are talking about the performance of any notification functions that provide or improve the solution of combat missions by troops. From a conceptual point of view, it can be said that each state seeks to possess information that fully ensures the implementation of its goals. In addition, it wishes to use this information, as well as ensure its high-quality protection.

This is done for political, economic or military purposes of information warfare. It is worth noting that knowledge of the enemy’s data serves as a means to significantly increase one’s own power and reduce the level of the enemy’s forces, resist them, and also protect actual values, which include information. This "weapon" has some effect on the information owned by the enemy, and on its informational functionality. At the same time, our "rear areas" are considered protected, which allows us to reduce the degree of the will of the enemy, the number of his capabilities that can potentially be used in the conduct of the struggle.

In accordance with these data, it is expedient to define the information confrontation. This is any operation associated with the use, destruction, distortion of enemy information, as well as its functions; with the protection of your own information against similarimpact; using military tactics of communicative value.

Types of information wars

Let's consider the currently existing types of information confrontation. Paying attention to the flow of accents of systemic conflicts from a material form to an information one, we can conclude that dealing with the phenomenon of wars is a very important task, but not as easy as it seems at first glance.

In this area - both in Russia and abroad - one can observe significant confusion. For example, M. Libitsky, one of the founders of the theory of inf. wars and developers of their aspects in practical terms, distinguishes either 5 or 7 varieties of information confrontation in the Russian Federation. It is important to keep in mind: both in terms of content and in practice, there are 3 main types of confrontation:

• Psychological (mental).
• Behavioral.
• Cyberwars.

It should be added that cyber wars, as well as psychological (mental) wars, are classified in accordance with the means of information confrontation and objects of combat influence. By psychological it is necessary to understand the content "battles", which set themselves the goal of changing the individual, group or mass consciousness.

It should be noted that in the process of mental confrontation, a struggle develops for values, minds, attitudes, and so on. Psychological information confrontation in the conflict was conducted long before the advent of the Internet. It hasa history that cannot be measured in hundreds or thousands of years. You need to know that through the World Wide Web, these confrontations have been transferred to a qualitatively and fundamentally different level of scale, intensity and effectiveness.

As for cyberwars, they should be understood as the destructive purposeful impact of information flows in the form of program codes directly on objects of material nature and their systems. Former high-ranking official, and now US government security expert Richard A. Clarke, a full-fledged definition of cyberwarfare was formed. So, this is the act of one state to penetrate the networks or computers of another in order to achieve the goals of destroying or damaging the latter.

It is worth noting that cyberwars and mental information warfare in conflict are types of wars that are waged in electronic network space, covering not only the Internet, but also military, private, corporate and government networks of a closed type. It is worth noting that each of the presented types is determined by its tools, strategies, methods, tactics of conducting, warning capabilities and patterns of escalation.

Behavioral warfare

It is advisable to consider the category of behavioral wars separately, since it is quite large-scale and has a fundamentally different information confrontation management system.

Today it is almost impossible to find Western publications that are dedicated to thistopic. First of all, the situation is connected with extreme delicacy, in particular, for the Western public point of view. In addition, the set of possibilities related to the conduct of full-fledged behavioral wars has appeared only recently due to the accumulation of extremely large arrays of objective data regarding human behavior, in particular, social and other groups of various sizes. This information is usually found on the Internet, which serves as a de facto behavioral archive.

It should be noted that the possibilities of behavioral warfare are associated with tools that are being developed at the intersection of Big Data, cognitive computing and the interdisciplinary set of psychological sciences. It is well known and has long been known that Russian scientists made a special contribution to the development of this case. They found that a person's behavior largely depends not only on his values, ideas or beliefs, it is based on habits, stereotypes, behavioral patterns, and is also formed as a result of the influence of formal and informal social institutions.

Scientists have proven that an individual, in accordance with his psychophysiology, like any creature, wants to solve problems under the condition of the least expenditure of energy and other resources. That is why a significant proportion of human behavior is implemented in a kind of semi-automatic mode, in other words, based on stereotypes and habits. This applies not only to elementary functions of the behavioral type, but also to standardsituations that arise in life.

Our habits, cultural stereotypes, behavioral patterns seriously affect us even in difficult situations associated with choices that, at first glance, require the mobilization of conscious resources and deep reflection. With all this, it is well known that human activity is not limited to his psychology - it is determined by the social character.

Goals of information warfare

Today, it is customary to distinguish three main goals of "ethereal" wars:

• Control of the information space so that its use is possible, provided that the military intelligence functionality is protected from enemy actions.
• Using intelligence control to conduct information attacks against the enemy.
• Improve the overall effectiveness of the armed forces through the widespread use of military information functionality.

Subjects of information wars

What refers to the subjects of information confrontation? So let's look at them one by one:

• States, their coalitions and unions. It is important to note that this subject, as a rule, is endowed with permanent interests in the information space; creates and controls the allied information space, integrated into the global one, and also acts as its segment. Forms special structural subdivisions and forces, one of the functions of which is the maintenance of inf. confrontation. Develops, and subsequentlytesting systems and models of communicative weapons, their means of camouflage and delivery, as well as the principles of combat use. Forms and consolidates ideological and conceptual provisions, which are the rationale for the need to participate in this confrontation.
• International level organizations. It should be noted that this subject of information warfare is usually endowed with stable interests in this segment. Takes part in the creation of a global information space and partially ensures control of national elements in it, forms within its own structures or applies national. structures that are integrated into organizations of an international type (their function and task is to conduct confrontation). It creates and uses its scientific and technical potential, develops and formally consolidates ideological and conceptual provisions that serve as a justification for the need to participate in information wars.
• Illegal non-state armed organizations and formations of extremist, terrorist, radical religious and political orientation. It is necessary to know that this subject is endowed with interests in the information space: it creates its own segment in it, seeks to control or capture elements of global or national significance. It develops forces within its own or allied organizations, the tasks and functions of which include the conduct of information wars. Forms and applies its scientific and technical potential, develops, and subsequently consolidates at the level of its own officialstrategy ideological and conceptual provisions that serve as a justification for the need to participate in information wars.
• Transnational corporations. This subject of information warfare is endowed with the same signs of subjectivity as organizations of the international type.

Conclusion

So, we have fully considered the concept, definition, varieties, goals and objectives of information wars. In conclusion, it is advisable to analyze their certain consequences. So, the explosion of a certain number of grenades is difficult to call a war. It doesn't matter who throws them. On the other hand, the explosion of one or another number of hydrogen bombs is a war started and ended at the same moment. It should be noted that the propaganda of the 50s - 60s, which was carried out by the USA and the USSR, is comparable to a certain number of grenades. That is why no one will call the past confrontation an infowar. At best, it deserves the term "cold war."

Today, together with its computational telecommunication systems, as well as psychological technologies, has significantly changed our environment. Separate streams of information have turned into a single stream. If earlier it was possible to "dam" certain inf. channels, now the entire space surrounding people has collapsed in terms of information. The time for contact between the most distant points tends to zero. As a result, the problem of protecting information, which was not considered relevant before, turned over like a coin. This elicited the opposite of a response - information protection.

Why is it necessary to fully protect the system from information? The fact is that any information that enters its input inevitably changes it. Intentional, purposeful inf. impact can change the system irreversibly or even lead it to self-destruction. That is why the information war is considered to be a hidden or explicit influence of the purposeful nature of systems on each other. The main goal here is to obtain a specific gain, usually in the material area.

Based on the above definition of information warfare, the use of communication weapons indicates the supply of a sequence of information at the input of a self-learning system that will allow it to activate some algorithms, and in their absence, the generation of initial sequences.

The formation of a universal algorithm for protection, which allows you to determine the fact of launching an infowar to the victim system, serves in this vein as an unsolvable problem. Such questions should also include the identification of a fact concerning the end of the confrontation. Nevertheless, despite the unresolvability of these points, the fact of defeat can be characterized by a number of signs that are also inherent in the loss in a standard war. It is advisable to include the following points here:

• Inclusion of part of the system structure of the affected side into the composition of the opposing side, which is the winner.
• The absolute destruction of elements that areresponsible for security against external threats.
• Complete destruction of a part of the structure, which is obliged to ensure the restoration of the system and its security elements in the event of an attack on them.
• Destruction and destruction of those segments that cannot be used by the winner for their own purposes.
• Reducing the capabilities of the losing system in terms of functionality by reducing its level inf. capacity.

Due to the generalization of these characteristics, it is advisable to introduce the concept of the degree of damage by communication weapons. Its evaluation can be carried out by means of an indicator of the information capacity of that part of the structure of the defeated system that has died or is functioning for the purposes determined by the winner. It is worth noting that the information weapon assumes the maximum effect only when it is used in accordance with the parts of the ASC that are most vulnerable to it. High inf. Vulnerability is endowed with those subsystems that are more sensitive to input information. We are talking about systems related to the adoption of managerial decisions.

It is possible to force the enemy to change his own behavior by means of hidden and obvious, internal and external threats of an informational nature. It must be borne in mind that in such a confrontation, as a rule, priority is given to hidden threats. The fact is that they help to nurture internal danger and purposefully manage the system from the outside.

It is worth remembering that public relations play an important role today. Originally designed to informthe public about the main events in the life of the country and power structures, they gradually began to perform another function related to influencing the consciousness of their audience in order to form a certain attitude towards the reported facts, phenomena of reality. This influence is carried out through the methods of propaganda and agitation developed by mankind over several thousand years.