Information warfare
Attempting to do so would also raise many ethical concerns about the right to privacy, making defending against such attacks even tougher.
The mass-integration of ICT into our system of war makes it much harder to assess accountability for situations that may arise when using robotic and/or cyber attacks.  For robotic weapons and automated systems, it's becoming increasingly hard to determine who is responsible for any particular event that happens.  This issue is exacerbated in the case of cyberattacks, as sometimes it is virtually impossible to trace who initiated the attack in the first place.
Recently, legal concerns have arisen centered on these issues, specifically the issue of the right to privacy in the United States of America.  Lt. General Keith B. Alexander, who served as the head of Cyber Command under President Barack Obama, noted that there was a "mismatch between our technical capabilities to conduct operations and the governing laws and policies" when writing to the Senate Armed Services Committee.  A key point of concern was the targeting of civilian institutions for cyberattacks, to which the general promised to try to maintain a mindset similar to that of traditional war, in which they will seek to limit the impact on civilians.

See also: Group specific:

US specific:

Notes: 

References: 

Bibliography: 

Books: Jerome Clayton Glenn, "Future Mind" Chapter 9. Defense p. 195-201. Acropolis Books LTD, Washington, DC (1989)
Winn Schwartau, "Information Warfare: Chaos on the Electronic Superhighway" Thunder's Mouth Press (1993)
Winn Schwartau, ed, Information Warfare: Cyberterrorism: Protecting your personal security in the electronic age, Thunder's Mouth Press, 2nd ed, (1996) (ISBN 1560251328).
John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt, In Athena's Camp, RAND (1997).
Dorothy Denning, Information Warfare and Security, Addison-Wesley (1998) (ISBN 0201433036).
James Adams, The Next World War: Computers are the Weapons and the Front line is Everywhere, Simon and Schuster (1998) (ISBN 0684834529).
Edward Waltz, Information Warfare Principles and Operations, Artech House, 1998, ISBN 0-89006-511-X
John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt, Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime, and Militancy, RAND (2001) (ISBN 0833030302).
Ishmael Jones, The Human Factor: Inside the CIA's Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture, Encounter Books, New York (2010) (ISBN 978-1594032233). Information/intelligence warfare.
Gregory J. Rattray, Strategic Warfare in Cyberspace, MIT Press (2001) (ISBN 0262182092).
Anthony H. Cordesman, Cyber-threats, Information Warfare, and Critical Infrastructure Protection: DEFENDING THE US HOMELAND (2002) (ISBN 0275974235).
Leigh Armistead, Information Operations: The Hard Reality of Soft Power, Joint Forces Staff College and the National Security Agency (2004) (ISBN 1574886991).
Thomas Rid, War and Media Operations: The US Military and the Press from Vietnam to Iraq, Routledge (2007) (ISBN 0415416590).

Other: Science at War: Information Warfare, The History Channel (1998).

External links: 

Resources: Hacktivism and Politically Motivated Computer Crime (PDF)
Cyberspace and Information Operations Study Center Archived 2007-10-31 at the Wayback Machine, Air University, U.S. Air Force.
IWS - The Information Warfare Site
Information Warfare Monitor - Tracking Cyberpower (University of Toronto, Canada/Munk Centre)
Twitter: InfowarMonitor
Information Warfare, I-War, IW, C4I, Cyberwar
Federation of American Scientists - IW Resources Archived 2007-10-14 at the Wayback Machine
Association of Old Crows  http://www.crows.org The Electronic Warfare and Information Operations Association.
C4I.org - Computer Security & Intelligence
Information Warfare, Information Operations and Electronic Attack Capabilities Air Power Australia.
Committee on Policy Consequences and Legal/Ethical Implications of Offensive Information Warfare Archived 2017-06-11 at the Wayback Machine, The National Academies.
Program on Information and Warfare, Global Information Society Project, World Policy Institute.
Information Warriors Archived 2020-10-27 at the Wayback Machine Information Warriors is web forum dedicated to the discussion of Navy Information Warfare.
Mastermind Corporation Information Warfare Tactics Analysis (PDF)
Information Warfare in Biology Nature's Exploitation of Information to Win Survival Contests, Monash University, Computer Science.

Course syllabi: COSC 511 Information Warfare: Terrorism, Crime, and National Security @ Department of Computer Science, Georgetown University (1997–2002) (Dorothy Denning).
CSE468 Information Conflict (Honours) @ School of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Monash University (2006) (Carlo Kopp).
Information Warfare, Cyberterrorism, and Hacktivism from Cybercrime, Cyberterrorism and Digital Law Enforcement, New York Law School.

Papers: research and theory: Col Andrew Borden, USAF (Ret.), What is Information Warfare? Aerospace Power Chronicles (1999).
Dr Carlo Kopp, A Fundamental Paradigm of Infowar (February 2000).
Research & Theory Links Archived 2007-10-30 at the Wayback Machine, Cyberspace and Information Operations Study Center, Air War College, Air University, U.S. Air Force.
Lachlan Brumley et al., Cutting Through the Tangled Web: An Information-Theoretic Perspective on Information Warfare (October 2012).
Galeotti, Mark (5 March 2018). "I'm Sorry for Creating the 'Gerasimov Doctrine'". Foreign Policy. Slate Group. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
Galeotti, Mark (2018). "The mythical 'Gerasimov Doctrine' and the language of threat". Critical Studies on Security. 7 (2). Informa UK Limited: 157–161. doi:10.1080/21624887.2018.1441623. ISSN 2162-4887. OCLC 8319522816. S2CID 159811828.
Michael MacDonald (2012) "Black Logos: Rhetoric and Information Warfare", pages 189–220 in Literature, Rhetoric and Values: Selected Proceedings of a Conference held at University of Waterloo, 3–5 June 2011, editors Shelley Hulan, Murray McArthur and Randy Allen Harris, Cambridge Scholars Publishing ISBN 978-1-4438-4175-7 .
Taddeo, Mariarosaria (2012). Information Warfare: A Philosophical Perspective. Philosophy and Technology 25 (1):105-120.

Papers: Other: An essay on Information Operations by Zachary P. Hubbard (Also Here (Doc file) from this page - working link added 31 May 2024)

News articles: Army, Air Force seek to go on offensive in cyber war, GovExec.com (June 13, 2007).
NATO says urgent need to tackle cyber attack, Reuters (June 14, 2007).
America prepares for 'cyber war' with China, Telegraph.uk.co (June 15, 2007).
NATO, US gear up for cyberpunk warfare, The Register (June 15, 2007).

United States Department of Defense IO Doctrine: Information Operations Roadmap (DOD 2003)
Information Operations (JP 3-13 2006)
Operations Security (JP 3-13.3) (PDF)
Military Deception (JP 3-13.4) (PDF)
Joint Doctrine for PSYOP (JP 3-53 2003)
Joint Doctrine for Public Affairs (JP 3-61 2005)
Destabilizing Terrorist Networks: Disrupting and Manipulating Information Flows in the Global War on Terrorism, Yale Information Society Project Conference Paper (2005).
Seeking Symmetry in Fourth Generation Warfare: Information Operations in the War of Ideas, Presentation (PDF slides) to the Bantle - Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism (INSCT) Symposium, Syracuse University (2006).
K. A. Taipale, Seeking Symmetry on the Information Front: Confronting Global Jihad on the Internet, 16 National Strategy F. Rev. 14 (Summer 2007).