Providing a Conceptual Model of Cyber Weapons

Dependence of humans on information technology has emerged a new form of war called cyber war. In the era of information and communication, cyber weapons are considered as the main pillars of cyber war and strategic issues of governments. The ability to produce, develop and use these weapons will increase the defense power of the nations in the cyber space and consequently in national power. The possibility of using cyber weapons against the important infrastructure has caused the masters of the defense field enter to this new field by using the latest technological achievements and realize the cyber deterrence increasingly. In this mixed approach (quantitative and qualitative) and content analysis method research, related literature was studied and cyber weapons at a strategic level were investigated, meantime; 79 commanders, managers and experts in strategic, operational and tactical levels of cyber defense of the country have presented the conceptual model of cyber weapons in an exploratory manner. In this study, three concepts of efficiency, intelligence and anonymity of cyber weapons have been identified as strategic dimensions of the model through in-depth interview; and then dimensions, components and indicators have been determined. Finally, by data analysis the conceptual model of cyber weapons in three dimensions, nine components and forty-four indicators are presented.