Most of us are either too enamoured or too intimidated with the internet and other cyber infrastructure and tend to take extreme views, declaring it the panacea for all ills or the mother of all evils. Cyber crime, cyber warfare and cyber terrorism have been so intricately embedded in the current 'security zeitgeist' that any discourse, technology integration and capability assimilation without multifaceted foci on these, remains diffused and inchoate. Strategists, decision-makers, practitioners and scholars study cyber warfare and each group is saddled with its own peculiar and intractable problems. Strategists and decision-makers, despite their many insights, struggle with neologism coined to describe new developments in cyber space. And practitioners and scholars, despite their cyber skills and proficiency in quick understanding of complex technical concepts, are incapable of providing a disciplined framework for policy enunciation. The study of cyber warfare suffers from too many unsubstantiated assertions and unwarranted assumptions which tend to be subjective and heterogeneous. The unique characteristics of this new domain warrant conceptualisation of new expositions, fresh interpretations of traditional concepts and studies of events that contributed to the current cyber zeitgeist.
The ubiquitous dependence of a nation on cyber space makes the disruption of cyber space a cause of grave concern. The conventional rules and legal norms associated with crime control and criminal justice struggle to keep pace with the changing dynamics of the challenges of policing, regulating and enforcing the provisions of statutory laws in cyber space. The laws newly enacted or amendments made to existing laws are still lagging behind when it comes to governing and regulating the cyber realm.
Group Captain Ashish Kumar Gupta was commissioned with the Indian Air Force as an Aeronautical Engineer (Electronics) in September 1991, after graduating in Computer Engineering. He received his Masters in Technology degree in Communication Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi and is also an alumnus of the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. He joined the Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS) in January 2014 as a Senior Fellow. At CAPS, his research area is 'Cyber Warfare: Implications for National Security'. He has contributed articles in various journals of national and international repute. He avidly and closely follows the developments taking place in the cyber realm.
