Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 09/2014

Semantics Matter - NATO, Cyberspace and Future Threats

Christine Hegenbart

July 2014

NATO Defense College

Abstract

Promoted by the mass media, catastrophic cyber scenarios are omnipresent: "Cyber-warfare: Hype and fear", "Cyber-security: War on terabytes" and "Escalating cyber-attacks - It's about time" are just some of the recent headlines in The Economist for prominent articles on cyber topics. The military perspective emerges explicitly from the choice of wording, suggesting a major security challenge for NATO.