Fight over images and truth has merely intensified in the era of cyber conflict.
The conclusion to be drawn from the effects of Syria's cyber conflict is that cyberspace needs to be seen as an integral part of any contemporary and future conflict.
The hacking that took place during the 2016 election, including attacks that exposed the inner workings of the Democratic National Committee and of Hillary Clinton's campaign, has opened a new chapter in the long-predicted rise of cyber conflict.
David Rothkopf, of Foreign Policy, recently characterized cyber conflict as a "cool war," writing, "It is a little warmer than cold because it seems likely to involve almost constant offensive measures that, while falling short of actual warfare, regularly seek to damage or weaken rivals or gain an edge through violations of sovereignty and penetration of defenses".
But as Obama and Clinton call for discussions of cyber attacks, experts say that government-led hacking is already booming, and the lack of international guidelines has led to unintended consequences for ordinary civilians caught up in cyber conflict.
A diplomatic priority should be to link cyber conflict to other issues during negotiations.
At the same time, policy makers in many countries are calling for "rules of the road" to regulate cyber conflict.
According to the DoD report, the PRC's military information operations (IO), cyber conflict, have five key features.
Most importantly, the private sector capacity in China--the true center of gravity in any cyber conflict--is inferior to the US private sector's capacity to support cyber war operations because of a lack of coordination.
The article warns, "If diplomats are not careful, one by-product of a push to regulate state-on-state cyber conflict could be a new effort to subject Internet activity to political scrutiny".
