Hi Peter,

Thanks for the link to the Waters, Ball & Dudgeon book. I was unaware of it.

Cyberwarfare is not at all my field, so it's going to need some chewing over.

Cheers,
Robert

Thanks Sir Vivor

For much shorter descriptions of cyberwarfare as it relates to Australia you may like to read the following:

- "Cyber Command may soon watch over us" on OLO, 10 Novemberr 2006, http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=5053 (see its comment string as well) and

- "The fifth battle domain - cyberspace" in News Weekly, 21 July 2007, http://www.newsweekly.com.au/articles/2007jul21_cover.html

To combat Russian hacking the Georgian cyber warriors may be relying on formal NATO/US help http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/14/europe/EU-GEN-NATO-Cyber-Defenses.php as well as on a disparate sea of international hackers (where half of cyberwarfare theory and practice began).

Too much appearing about cyberwarfare seems to originate from a US information (scare) campaign against Chinese government hackers. Just like all major countries use older style sigint interception all major countries are likely to be running their own intrusive hacking campaigns.

Similarly I think the term "cyberterrorist" has been misleading in many ways.

This is probably worth another article some time.

Regards

Pete

Here is a collation of Satellite data, it shows where the damage is worst in and around Tskhinvali.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/LPAA-7HMMB3?OpenDocument

http://img29.picoodle.com/data/img29/3/8/24/f_satellitepim_7769447.jpg

What is immediately apparent is that the damage within Tskhinvali itself is, apart from a few specific areas, fairly moderate, which suggests that the damage there is not the widespread destruction that has been claimed by Russia.

That is to be contrasted with the wholesale destruction in Tamarasheni (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarasheni), a Georgian village directly to the north of Tskhinvali, where it appears that nearly every building is seriously damaged and/or destroyed. Also see the damage in and around the Georgian village of Ergneti just over the Georgian border (on the road to Gori).

For those here who prefer the Russian version of events, can someone explain precisely, how 'smugglers' (which is how the Russians claim the Sth Ossetians were armed) managed to sneak into the country heavy tube and rocket artillery? Especially given that there is only a couple of passes and they are ostensibly patrolled by Russian peacekeepers? I mean, there must be heavy equipment goat tracks given the damage distribution.

Or is Russia telling lies in order to cover up the ethnic cleansing that is being carried out in Sth Ossetia / Abkhazia by its citizens?