Cashing in on Cyberpower: How Interdependent Actors Seek Economic Outcomes in a Digital World

Over recent centuries, nations struggling for increased power over their neighbors sought mainly symmetric advantages, using clearly defined strategies to crush enemies using military force, coercion, and domination. In recent years, however, as the world becomes increasingly digitally interconnected, military leaders are ditching such symmetric power plays in favor of cyber strategies. Emerging from an interdependent framework, asymmetric cyber strategy confuses national power interaction across the global commons through flow interruptions and the associated difficulty in attributing influences. Clearly identifying state and non-state actors who use cyber means for economic manipulation drives Mark Peter’s central question, “How do state and non-state actors use cyber means to influence economic power outcomes?”. Using eight hypotheses to develop this central question, Peters analyzes 198 cyber events, discussing their area of effect, targeting intent, method, and attribution. He also explores newly developed case studies depicting the 2012 trade negotiation espionage in the Japanese Trans-Pacific Partnership preparations, the 2015 cyber-attacks on Ukrainian SCADA systems, and the 2010 intellectual property theft of a gold detector design from the Australian Codan corporation. All hypotheses combine to identify new data and provide a concrete baseline depicting how leaders use cyber means to achieve their economic outcomes.

Table of Contents:
List of Figures List of Tables Acknowledgments 1. Entering the Cyber Commons Problem Research Question Interdependence and Power Method Development Cyber Application and Case Studies Summary 2. Interdependence Why Use Interdependence Theory? Interdependent Characteristics of the Virtual State Defining Interdependent Cyberspace Cyber Operations Summary 3. Power Types of Power Power Application Power through Economic Cyber Influences Summary 4. Method Development Method Types Describing the Data Sources Categorizing Cyber Events Case Study Guideline Summary 5. Cyber Applications Application in Practice Deciphering the Data Evaluating the First Four Hypotheses Summary 6. Case Study Analysis Deciphering Events through Narrative Linkages Japanese Government Case: Economic Espionage Ukrainian Power Grid Case: Economic Cyberattack Codan Case: Intellectual Property Theft Evaluating the Economic Hypotheses (H5, H6, H7, H8)  Summary 7. Framing Future Channels Linking Hypotheses to the Research Question Future Applications Final Thoughts Appendix: Cyber Events Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Lt. Col. Mark T. Peters II (Ph.D., Henley-Putnam University, Santa Clara) is the chief of the operations division at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. As a Master Cyberspace Operator, Lt. Col. Peters previously served as squadron commander for the 18th Intelligence Squadron, a space control intelligence organization of the USAF. Commissioned upon graduating from the US Air Force Academy in 1997, he has accrued over twenty years of military and intelligence experience.

Review :
Peters goes beyond the usual cyber paradigms of domain, technology, and products/services. He makes a compelling case for cyber as a means to generate economic outcomes—by nation-state and nonstate actors alike."" - Maj. Gen. Dale Meyerrose, U.S. Air Force (Ret.) ""Cashing In on Cyberpower is an important contribution to the debate in the cybersecurity field. Mark Peters offers an impressive investigation of the empirical dynamics of cyberactions in the Global Commons. Likely the most impressive contribution is the focus on the economic means of cyberconflict, demonstrating the utility of economic warfare in digital interactions. Scholars, practitioners, and the public should take note."" - Brandon Valeriano, reader in International Relations and Digital Politics at Cardiff University and Donald Bren Chair of Armed Politics at Marine Corps University.