Implementing cyber coercion

Abstract

Cyberspace has become an essential component of modern militaries. As this dependency grows, militaries who exploit this dependency may be able to hurt their adversaries within cyberspace to coerce them into a desirable action. This thesis will explore one particular use of cyber coercion, the use of cyber weapons to target supply chains, to study what methods may be best suited for cyber coercion. This thesis first looks at the possibilities for cyber coercion and the various factors that are important for an attack method to successfully coerce an adversary, including reusability, reversibility, and legality. It then proposes various cyber attacks that could be used in cyber coercion and reviews factors important in cyber coercion. Next, it takes these proposed methods and walks through three scenarios against fictional nation-states to analyze how these methods might perform in a cyber-coercion operation. Included are possible effects if these same attacks were used against the United States. Findings are then presented based on the scenarios.