Cyberweapon

A cyberweapon is a malware agent employed for military, paramilitary, or intelligence objectives.

Requirements for the term vary widely; the most common criteria seem to be for a malware agent which:

Part of the distinction from other malware is that the agent is sponsored—that is, commissioned, developed, and/or actually used—not by a black-hat hacker or organized criminal group, but instead by a state or a non-state actor, the latter potentially including terrorist groups and other entities proposed in 4GW doctrines.

A cyberweapon performs an action which would normally require a soldier or spy, and which would be considered either illegal or an act of war if performed directly by a human agent of the sponsor during peacetime. Legal issues include violating the privacy of the target and the sovereignty of its host nation. Such actions include (but are not limited to):

While a cyberweapon almost certainly results in either direct or indirect financial damages to the target group, direct financial gains for the sponsor (such as the transfer of funds) are not a primary objective of this class of agent.

Unlike malware used by script kiddies to organize botnets, where the ownership, physical location, and normal role of the machines attacked is largely irrelevant, cyberweapons show high in either or both of their employment and their operation. Before the attack, cyberweapons usually identify the target using different methods. Likewise, malware employed by fraudsters for the theft of personal or financial information demonstrates lower selectivity and wider distribution.

Note that self-replication is not a requirement; as such, not all cyberweapons are viruses and not all viruses are necessarily cyberweapons. Without this capability, however, an alternate vector is required to get the agent onto the target system(s). Likewise, compromised access alone, such as that provided by a rootkit, is not diagnostic of the employment of a cyberweapon.

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