This is war. It just isn't Westphalian war:
Anonymous is a bit of unique animal in the sense that it’s a widely geographically dispersed entity. There are many civil conflicts where civil society or rebel groups within a country take action against a government. There are also cyber protests and Denial of Service (DoS) attacks against governments all the time. But there is less precedent for widely geographically dispersed, online-only entities taking action, such as espionage, against governments. I think that the scale and the particular way Anonymous has done it is something a little bit new. It’s not just DoS attacks, but also email hacks into ministry personnel files to gain sensitive information to be used as a tool and pressure point against the Syrian government itself.
Of course, Anonymous isn't a unitary actor in this evolution of politics. It is more of a group of people who tend to view and react to the world in similar ways. But they do not act together except by choice and cannot be negotiated with as an actor. If Kissinger famously wondered just who the heck we have to call to talk to "Europe," how do we deal with Anonymous?
Eight years ago, I wondered what we'd do if what I called "cyber-booters" began carrying out their own foreign policy online:
Will these computer users be a cyber militia to help defend our nation? Or will they be cyber freebooters carrying out independent foreign policies and even waging a kind of war contrary to US foreign policy?
And don't think that this evolution will be restricted to the cyber realm, where you can already buy yourself a little cyber-war. Private groups will wage war in the physical realm, too:
With so many private security outfits around, how long before they need to drum up business when contracts start to peter out or too many competitors eat at the profit margin?
And so perhaps a need to match potential warmakers with potential war fighters will be met with an online service. Call it warBay. Need a bridge blown up somewhere? Sign on to warBay and choose from local insurgents out to make a profit, renegade pilots from a poor Third World air force willing to drop a bomb for cash, or ex-SAS members who formed a company without current government contracts in need of some money. Or assassinate a leader. Or just kill a bunch of people who are of the designated race or religion. Or hire some special ops types to intercept another group you read on an Internet board are planning to hit your side's headquarters (church or whatever). Freelancers and idiots could hire themselves out like the Shoe Bomber or like Timothy McVeigh to ply their particular skill for money.
Whatever your war needs, there are people out there who can provide the service. More bang for the buck, to turn a phrase. And warBay will be there.
I was thinking of this rise of private warfare in the cyber and physical realms in the context of the War on Terror, but even if this war accelerates this evolution to private warfare (and only 99 cents!), it isn't caused by the war. States are losing their Westphalian monopoly on the right to use force.
Just wait. Anonymous might not be the first to make warBay. But someone will. Non-state warfare isn't a monopoly held by jihadis.
