Blog 3: Conflict and War in the Digital Age

War has never been easy. From the families at home to the soldiers on the battlefield, it's a constant struggle to survive. Advances in technology, however, have made some jobs easier. GPS and radars have accurately pinpointed where the enemy is and given our soldiers the one up in strategy. Robotics and hidden cameras can seek out buried landmines before anyone steps foot into the area. But in more recent times, we're not the only ones wielding this power. The other side now has tech savvy soldiers with the ability to gain intel and potentially use it to harm American troops.

Newsweek's Magazine had an article online that gave us an inside look at an undercover solider who was in charge of digging up Taliban intelligence to better inform U.S. troops. He was dressed as a normal civilian going around with a digital camera right under their noses. On the Taliban side, they're recruiting more that have a better knowledge of technology to gain intelligence, manage communications, and maintain electronic security. This puts us at a huge disadvantage.

The more they learn, the more they can do. At this point, the possibilities are frightening. They can hack our emails, listen to our phone conversations, direct suicide attacks without us ever being able to know. Technology is designed to help people with everyday needs, long term projects and to make life easier. It's scary to think how people can use it for ill desires. Is the advancement of technology only harmful to us in the long run? It's a dog eat dog world and just because we have the ability to use these skills doesn't mean that we're the only ones that will.

What does this mean for people living in the digital age? The government may or may not want to create restrictions on different aspects of technology or connection to the internet. They may want to start tracking what users are looking up in fear of the country's security. This would put such a choke hold on the people's electronic freedoms. What if people thought what you were looking up was a threat? How would you fair because of how one group of people would judge you?

One can argue that this advancement can be harmful to the community, on the battlefield as well as off. It can be detrimental for intelligence security of position, tactics and other information. It can also be harmful for future privacy and access on technology all over the nation. We can only hope that we can stay with the leg up on the fight.