Development of Cyber Defense Strategies of the Army of Islamic Republic of Iran

The era of information exchange is identified as the virtual and cyberspace and is also taken as the national sovereignty and territory of the countries including air, sea and land. Moreover, its protection, preservation and defense are of crucial significance and are also taken as the national security as well. Cyber controversial issues are basically divided into military and non-military sphere including building and promoting the cyber security of critical infrastructure, confronting the cyber threats as well as taking actions against espionage and spying operations and also attacks and defense. The military sphere is aimed to defend the infrastructure of military information technology as well as seizing the opportunities of cyberspaces for military purposes along with managing the cyber war. This study was an attempt to investigate cyber commanding strategies of different countries as well as the army of Islamic Republic of Iran and also aimed to identify its significance. For this purpose, the study was conducted through administering a questionnaire among population of 147 managers and experts affiliated to the cyber units of the Iranian army which were selected based on purposeful sampling method. The findings revealed that cyber threats of the armed forces is identified as a crucial phenomenon of national security and these threats will jeopardize the survival of national interests and also destroy the crucial infrastructures of the country and its army. Finally, in an attempt to defend the sensitive nets and cyber spaces of Iranian army ICT centers against increasing cyber threats, some practical suggestions are made for cyber approaches of the Iranian army including using cyber spaces to support operational capabilities in cyber arena as well as enhancing the rate of cooperation in crisis management in cyber warfare along with having permanent interactions among the other identical units of the armed forces of Islamic Republic of Iran