Cyber Warfare And National Security: Imperative For Naval Operations

The increase in the reliance on an application of digital technologies in the 21st Century has triggered several cyber threats that threaten national security in various dimensions. To keep at pace with the dynamics of the global information domain, nations are increasingly developing cyber capabilities and integrates these capabilities into hybrid warfare in accordance with the changing character of warfare. The interplay of defensive and offensive cyber capabilities brought to fore the new paradigm of safe guarding own digital technologies against adversaries' attack and at the same time exploiting the vulnerabilities. The employment of cyber-warfare within the paradigm of national security involves the activities in cyberspace which centred around the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) weapons for offensive and defensive operations by state and non-state actors against other nation-states or non-state actors. Accordingly, Advanced navies have developed their capacities to defend maritime assets and infrastructure against cyber-attacks by state and non-state actors. The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has, over the years, made concerted efforts to develop the capacity of the Nigerian Navy (NN) to defend the maritime assets against any threats, including cyber-related attacks, for enhanced national security. However, the cyber warfare capabilities of the NN remain limited, thereby making Nigeria's Maritime Environment (NME) vulnerable to cyber-attacks with negative implications on national security. The desire to explore ways of developing the NN capabilities in cyber warfare for naval operations is the motivation of this research. The major problem is that the cyber warfare capability of the NN to defend the nation from the maritime sector is low due to inadequacies or outright lack of requisite cyber tools. The study was descriptive research and integrated both qualitative and quantitative data. The data were collected from primary and secondary sources. The research proffered strategies including formulation of NN cyber warfare policy, creation of a cyber warfare directorate and special recruitment and training of naval cyber warriors.