Assessing Opinions on Software as a Weapon in the Context of (Inter)national Security

Abstract

Modern life is permeated by software which provides a large attack surface, ranging from generic, low impact malware attacks, to sophistically created and targeted code touted as a next generation of weapons. Although some research on this broad area of cyber weapons exists, the solicitation of public opinion through surveys is lacking. A questionnaire was conducted on the attitudes towards Software as a Weapon (SaaW), with this article presenting further results, linking traditional aspects of weapons to the understanding of, and differences between, software and malware in context of international security. The results suggest that there is a statistically significant difference between respondents in the Military, Academia, or Other professions concerning questions of capabilities, and the demise of the state-centric model. Furthermore, factor analyses identified eight dimensions in our questionnaire. Comparison of these across the three groups revealed significant differences in how peoples’ background influenced their perception concerning the nature, intent, and potential of software and malware to be used as a weapon. Finally, using text-mining, we present the words frequently used to describe malware, software, and weapons, and provide an interpretation for overlap between constructs.