Cyber Warfare: The Power of the Unseen

M K Sharma

While Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is being considered as backbone of development, it has also given rise to the new vulnerabilities arising from its application to nearly whole spectrum of political, societal and military undertakings. The creation of US cyber command directly under White House is the outcome of the recognition of cyber threat as one of the most serious economic and national security challenges. Many Russians argue that the danger of cyber warfare ranks second only to that of nuclear war.

Cyber Warfare: The Power of the Unseen aims at demystifying the concept of cyber warfare beyond technical jargons and what hits the media headlines. It attempts to assess Indian cyber power and to identify National Critical Information Infrastructure (NCII). It address the issues of how India could secure its cyber space by building up credible cyber offence, cyber defence and cyber deterrence capabilities. The book also proposes a cyber war strategy for India.

An assessment of Chinese cyber war capabilities and some pointers to why china will peruse cyber warfare more aggressively in future have also been provided. The book also deals with cyber terrorism, challenges for law enforcement agencies and information security standards.

For providing an overarching perspective of Cyber Warfare encompassing social, economic, political, technical and military dimensions the book is an essential read to all thinking soldiers, and those who are interested in cyber warfare and cyber security issues at any level of hierarchy.

M K Sharma Wing Commander MK Sharmais a serving officer of the Indian Air Force, commissioned as an Aeronautical Engineer in 1995 after graduating in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from The Institution of Engineers. He is a professional missile engineer and Battery Commander in Surface to Air Guided Missile (SAM-III) System with vast experience including instructional tenure at prestigious Guided Weapons College and Command Examiner for South Western Air Command. He was commended by Commander-in-Chief, Western Air Command for his pioneering modification work on missile systems in 1998.
Wing Commander MK Sharma has commanded a detachment of SAM-III Missile battery in Western sector during Operation ‘Parakram’, the Indo-Pak standoff during 2001-02. He has also commanded a Special Navigation Flight in Western Air Command. He has in-depth hands-on experience on installation and commissioning of country wide intranet-Air Force Network (AFNET) project at field level. He was a research Fellow at Centre for Air Power Studies, New Delhi during2008-10.
He is a Fellow of The Institution of Engineers (India). He has done his Masters in Business Administration from Symbiosis International University, Pune and was awarded M.Phil. in management in 2008.As a hobbyist, he is also a licensed trainer of martial arts (Karate) and holds Black Belt (First Dan) from International Federation of Oriental Martial Arts.