The Cyber Conflict

Hacking had its roots in the development of TouchTone dialing by Bell Labs. Because the system did not distinguish tones generated by the dialing telephone and tones generated by an external device placed near the handset’s microphone, it was possible to create a device that would enable a user to obtain free phone calls throughout the network. Although many of the original “phone phreakers” learned how to navigate this system by trial and error, it became vastly easier after an internal AT&T document was leaked (some said stolen, others said found discarded in a dumpster), becoming one of the first major examples of the perils of security by obscurity.

By the 1980’s and 90’s the rise of the Internet made hacking both more widespread and more publicly visible. However, as long as it was perceived as being mostly the actions of nerdy juvenile delinquents, concern about it was viewed largely as verging upon a moral panic.

Even the incidents of attempts to hack US military assets during the Energy Wars were not seen as a major threat, mostly because of the sheer ineptitude of many of the organizations involved. Yes, it was a threat, and security measures were quietly put in place to make it more difficult, but it was generally regarded as better to say nothing about it and leave the other side wondering whether they had been successful or were wasting their time.

However, it was during the Sharp Wars that cyberspace truly became a battlefield. The Sharp Wars were a civil war within an Information Age society heavily invested in technology, in which both the Administration and the Resistance were heavily dependent upon control of channels of information in their strategy. This was particularly true as the locus of resistance shifted towards the Moon. With the rise of Shepardsport Pirate Radio as one of the foremost information organs of the Resistance, the Flannigan Administration began to focus its cyber-warfare efforts on blocking its Internet radio streaming service, preventing US citizens on Earth from listening to Shepardsport commandant Reginald Waite’s dissenting views.

—- V. Taylor, “Cyber-war.” Battlefield Dynamics, Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2055.