"It was a massive bombing of all our systems" : en studie av John A. Wardens femringsmodell och NotPetya

According to NATO Review, in 2013 it was estimated that over 97% of the world's telecommunications were transmitted via the internet and that this was a growing trend. This essentiality for communication means that information systems have become a natural target and point of attack in military actions and planning. This thesis aims to test the possibility to apply the theory of The enemy as a system and the concentric five-ring modeldeveloped by air force theorist Jon A. Warden III, to the cyber arena. To achieve this aim, the thesis presents a qualitative text analysis of seven different sources describing NotPetya. The targets and effects of the cyber attack are evaluated based upon the concentric five-ring model and the concept of parallel attack. The results of the analysis shows that Warden's theory is highly applicable to the case of NotPetya. This in turn could point to the theory’s applicability to the cyber domain and to strategic operations in cyberspace. However no major conclusions of generalizability can be drawn.