Information Warfare in the Trenches

With the increased potential of a bona fide cyber terrorist attack and the possibility of a future “war in the wires”, we must continue to improve the education and training of individuals responsible for defending our national borders—whether those borders are physical or electronic. The Information Analysis and Research (IWAR) laboratory at the United States Military Academy (USMA) has proven to be an exceptional resource for such an education for our cadets and faculty studying information warfare and information assurance. The laboratory has also been successful in motivating the need for continued education and training in this area on a much larger scope. This paper justifies why information warfare laboratories are necessary, describes the phenomenon that is occurring as a result of the IWAR lab, explains the current configuration, and presents lessons learned that others might use in designing an Information Warfare laboratory. While this paper has a military context, the results apply to any university, corporation, or nonprofit organization desiring to increase awareness and improve education in the area of information warfare