Metaday #62: Wargames in the Fifth Domain - Mutually Assured Pwnage

A critical look at what Cold War analogies can and cannot teach us about “cyberwar”.

Lecturer: Karin Kosina, kyrah.net, @kyrah

“Cyberwar” has become a thing. Unfortunately, no-one seems to be totally clear on what that thing really is. And so there has been a flurry of attempts to make sense of the brave new world of warfare in the fifth domain by likening it to other, better-understood models of conflict - most notably: the Cold War. To what degree do such comparisons make sense though?
This is not a technical talk about the latest 0day. It is not a historical talk about the Cold War either. (Though you will hopefully learn a few interesting technical details and historical anecdotes from it anyway.) It is an attempt to clarify what the heck that over-used term “cyberwar” is actually supposed to mean, and to contribute to a critical discussion about what the militarisation of cyberspace means for us as a society.

Speaker:
Karin Kosina, virtually known as kyrah, worked for 10+ years in R&D before deciding to go into international relations. She wrote her master’s thesis at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna on Wargames in the Fifth Domain, arguing that “cyberwar” is vastly over-hyped.

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