Soft War in the Context of Cyber Threats and Security Provision Strategies

Following the utilization of soft power in the international relations arena, the nature of conflicts and the quality of hostility changed and a discourse transformation emerged in the field of warfare. In other words, with soft power gaining importance in achieving international status, increasing the legitimacy and efficiency, reducing costs and winning the support of public opinion, software warfare replaced classic warfare. Thus, the present-day conflicts can be identified as "soft war". It should be noted that soft war comprises different dimensions each of which benefits from various devices. One of the dimensions of soft war is cyber threats or cyber warfare which has found increasing importance along with the expansion and growth of information and communication technologies. Cyber warfare can be defined as utilization of computers and information exchange space as a weapon to fulfill one’s objectives, which is usually carried out with political aims and by making use of networks to perform destructive acts. Examining cyber threats as one of the dimensions of soft war and identifying cyber threats and cyber-terrorism, this paper offers guidelines for security provision. Due to the nature of the topic under investigation here, we have utilized documentary-descriptive method in this paper.