Both of my parents are computer technicians, so I've always been exposed to technology and had interest in it.  Technology has always been a large part of my life and now that the world is starting to move towards new, technological methods of doing things, cyber warfare is starting to become more important to take notice of.  I have never personally been impacted by a cyber attack, but I have seen people that have been.  My parents deal a lot in technology and know people that are employed in various aspects of it, and have told me stories of dealing with identity theft and things of that nature. My research has changed my values somewhat.  Before, I was more neutral about the topic and did not have much against it, but now looking into it I realize what it can do.  I do not have any direct personal experience with cyber warfare, but my interest in technology has lead me to read a few things about it, but I thought this would be a good opportunity to learn more.  My parents, though, and sometimes myself, have helped customers with computer problems such as a virus, which is like a very small-scale attack on a computer.  A simple virus can shut down an entire computer in some cases and even make it useless.  In one instance, another student at my high school put a virus on a USB drive that causes the computer it is plugged into to pull a random picture file from the internet and make virtually infinite files of it on the computer.  If such a small-scale issue can cause a whole computer to shut down, it is scary to think about what it could do to larger, more important systems.   My experience working with my parents and being exposed to the latest technology since a young age has helped me become proficient with technology.

The main claim of this article is to show the danger of cyber attacks.  China hired hackers  --  while supposedly sponsored by Russia  --  to hack into United States Pentagon systems.  There have been over 600 attacks, all attributed to the Chinese hackers.  These attacks focused on "all top national security and trade officials."  This shows how dangerous China's cyber regime can be, and if it is already this bad it raises the question of what happens when it is five, ten, or even fifty years into the future?  This article brings to light the different issues that the cyber attacks can bring.

The major value of this article is showing how critical cyber attacks can be.  It does a good job of bringing this issue to light in an ethical and informed manner.  This article explains the Chinese attacks and the effects that they had on the United States and officials involved.  These attacks were done on a mass scale and impacted many people.  Civilians would be heavily impacted by these attacks, and since The Guardian is a UK news source, they reported the event.  It was through the American branch of the publication since the event was directly impacting the United States, although it was reported worldwide.

The publication The Guardian is a good, credible, reputable source.  They have been a long-time news source in the UK and have gained respect around the world.  The author, Sam Thielman, covers technology and business for the Guardian.  This topic falls directly into both of his areas of expertise, allowing for a complete and informed perspective to be written.  He has written many articles for them, and is a steady, reliable contributor.  The article does a good job on not being incredibly biased one way or the other.  Thielman did a good job of focusing on presenting the facts of the matter.


       The major claim of this article is that cyber warfare is an immediate danger, and offers five supporting pieces of evidence.  The number one piece they offer is that the government is target number one to outside enemies.  The second is the threat that businesses face, both security and financially.  These are two of the main three usual targets of cyber attacks, the third being information.    

       Time has the major value of informing their readers.  Time Magazine is a very respected publication.  They have presented many impactful stories throughout its storied history, while providing a substantial amount of informational articles.  The main interest of this article is to inform readers of the new threat of cyber attacks.  The public should be informed because if there is a new weapon available, people should know about it.  Being informed allows for people to properly defend themselves and make the best decisions for themselves and their families.

       Like The Guardian, Time is a respected publication, and the article does not present much bias as well.  This publication is well-known for having quality content and they strive to maintain that quality.  The author Ian Bremmer is a foreign affairs columnist and editor-at-large for Time.  Bremmer is also the president of the Eurasia Group, a political-risk consultancy and just published a new book as well.  He holds the credentials to write for Time and just about any other major publication as well.  This is another quality article of his.

       The main claim of this article is that cyber warfare is a real issue.  The article first mentions the full-blown hacking war between India and Pakistan, and both sides defaced websites belonging to organizations in each country.  The fact that this hacking war is not more prominent in news is concerning because it is a small-scale preview of what could happen in the future if something is not done to prevent it.  In 2014 North Korea was accused of an attack on South Korea's Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co Ltd.  A claim like this is not entirely surprising as North Korea has a history of doing underhanded things to other countries.

       The major value in this article is to expose the reader to information that they may not have seen before.  This is good because things like this do not yet receive enough mainstream media coverage.   The article does a good job lying out events to the reader, allowing them to see that cyber attacks are a true threat, or just to inform the curious reader.  This article gracefully balances the line of being informative and not being boring. 

       Fortune.com is a reputable website with reliable information.  The author, Peter Suciu, is a freelance technology writer with fifteen years of experience.  He has had articles in publications ranging from Newsweek to PC.  His work has also appeared on cnet.com, forbes.com, and cnn.com.  The amount of different publications he has had work on is impressive.

This research question is arguable because cyber warfare has changed warfare and attacks itself.  There are many new ways to look at war, and how war is being waged with cyber attacks.   The three sources are generally in agreement in the fact that cyber warfare is a part of the modern war, and is something to be paid attention to.  I agree with the sources, as I believe that cyber war is something that can be utilized in warfare and general attacks.  If I were to revise this research question, I would make it so there were more opposing viewpoints.

Kaazim: For how complex this issue is, your research reflection should be considerably longer. Since I'm an outsider on this topic, I feel like I need way more information because your research question doesn't seem to have much grip w/r/t the sources you have here. You probably just need to find more quality sources, but I'm still not convinced we should be advocating for cyberwarfare. C
