Reference note no. 35/RN/Ref./July/2017 For the use of Members of Parliament

 
REFERENCE NOTE
No.35/RN/Ref./July/2017
 
For the use of Members of Parliament
 
 
 
 
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
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CYBER WARFARE AND NATIONAL SECURITY 
CHALLENGES 
 
 
Prepared by Smt. Neelam Sethi, Additional Director and Shri Abhishek Thakur, SLA of Lok Sabha 
Secretariat under the supervision of Shri Atul Kaushik, Additional Secretary, Smt. Kalpana 
Sharma, Joint Secretary and Shri C.N. Sathyanathan, Director.
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The Reference Note is for personal use of the Members in the discharge of their Parliamentary duties, and is not for 
publication. This Service is not to be quoted as the source of information as it is based on the sources indicated at 
the end/in the text.
MEMBERS' REFERENCE SERVICE 
LARRDIS 
LOK SABHA SECRETARIAT, NEW DELHI 

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Cyber Warfare and National Security Challenges 
 
Introduction 
"Cyber
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 warfare"  is an extension of policy by actions taken in cyber space 
by state or no state actors that either constitute a serious threat to a nation’s 
security or are conducted in response to a perceived threat against a nation’s 
security
.
It is mainly an Internet-based conflict involving politically motivated 
attacks on information and information systems. Cyber attacks
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can disable official 
websites and networks, disrupt or disable essential services, steal or alter classified 
data, and cripple financial systems -- among many other possibilities
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.