Across a range of unusual battle-spaces—global computer networks, human psychology, and electronic systems—the Air Force has become fully engaged in information warfare (IW), now deemed a critical element in the worldwide conflict with terrorists. USAF is concentrating on three IW thrusts: network—that is, computer—operations, "influence" operations, and electronic warfare operations. In these new combat arenas, adversaries, and consequences of their actions, are constantly shifting. Encounters rarely are unambiguous. Take, for example, an unidentified intruder's success in hacking into the Air Force Personnel Center's Assignment Management System database, used by airmen for assignment planning. The hacker, acting last June, used a legitimate user's log-in and access codes and downloaded the names, birth dates, and Social Security numbers of 33,000 airmen, mostly officers.
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