What is being targeted, by us or by others? The answer is three mostly interconnected and interdependent information infrastructures. The first is the National Information Infrastructure (NII), this being the key network element within a country that enables its information society to function, and determines the efficiency of its functionality. The second is the Global Information Infrastructure (GII), which provides the international connectivity to the NII. The third is the Defence Information Infrastructure (DII), which, as the name implies, serves a country’s Defence organisation, both military and civilian.
Definitions of the above vary between authorities, authors and so on within and between countries, but all boil down to the same essential characteristics. ADF definitions have been used below as the primary definitions for the NII and DII because of the ADF’s lead role in Australia for targeting any foreign infrastructures. Another definition of the NII, drawn from Defence sources, has also been cited because of its simplicity. Interestingly, the ADF has no definition of the GII.
The NII is defined in Australian Defence Doctrine Publication (ADDP) 3-13—Information Operations (2006), as
compris[ing] the nation wide telecommunications networks, computers, databases and electronic systems; it includes the Internet, the public switched networks, public and private networks, cable and wireless, and satellite telecommunications. The NII includes the information resident in networks and systems, the applications and software that allows users to manipulate, organise and digest the information; the value added services; network standards and protocols; encryption processes; and importantly the people who create information, develop applications and services, conduct facilities, and train others to utilise its potential.[4]
The above is more a statement of the composition of the NII than a typical definition, but is very useful in that regard. A shorter definition initially used by Australia’s Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) in 1997, in Australia’s first national study of the threats to and vulnerabilities of the NII, reads:
[The NII] comprises those components that make up the network within and over which information is stored, processed and transported. It includes those people who manage and serve the infrastructure, and the information itself. This information may take the form of electronic voice, facsimile or data.[5]
Although there is presently no ADF definition of the GII, the current US Department of Defense definition is
the worldwide interconnection of communications networks, computers, databases, and consumer electronics that make vast amounts of information available to users. The global information infrastructure encompasses a wide range of equipment, including cameras, scanners, keyboards, facsimile machines, computers, switches, compact discs, video and audio tape, cable, wire, satellites, fibre optic-optic transmission lines, networks of all types, televisions, monitors, printers, and much more. The friendly and adversary personnel who make decisions and handle the transmitted information constitute a critical component of the global information infrastructure. Also known as the GII.[6]
This definition is essentially the same as the US definition for the NII, the only difference being the substitution of the words ‘the worldwide interconnection’ with ‘the nationwide interconnection’ as the lead.[7] As for the ADF definition of the NII, the US NII and GII definitions contain a useful description of the composition of components within these infrastructures.
Alternatively, the GII may be defined simplistically as comprising a global network of NIIs as well as other dedicated international information networks.
However, the GII, as defined, is not identical with the Internet. The Internet is the global network of networks; other dedicated networks that are stand-alone and not networked, are not part of the Internet.
The DII is defined in ADDP 3-13 as
the shared or interconnected system of telecommunications networks, computers, data bases and electronic systems serving the Defence Department’s national and global information needs. It is a subset of and comprises the NII, and includes the people who manage and serve the infrastructure, and the information itself. It includes information infrastructure which is not owned, controlled, managed or administered by Defence.[8]
The issue of ownership, control and management applies to the NII and GII as well as the DII, and is discussed further below.
[4] ADDP 3-13—Information Operations, Glossary of Terms, Australian Defence Headquarters, 2006.
[5] See Defence Signals Directorate (DSD—Australia), Australia’s National Information Infrastructure: Threats and Vulnerabilities, February 1997. An unclassified version of this report is at Attachment A to a report to the Australian Government by the Attorney-General’s Department dated December 1998 entitled ‘Protecting Australia’s National Information Infrastructure’. This report is available at <http://law.gov.au/publications/niirpt.ptl>.
[6] US Department of Defense, Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, Joint Publication 1-02, 17 October 2007, available at <http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/ jel/doddict/data/g/02329.html>, accessed 28 February 2008.
[7] US Department of Defense, Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms.
[8] ADDP 3-13—Information Operations, Glossary of Terms.