The Battle of the Beams
One of the earliest attacks leveraging communication- and electron-related conduits was not on a computerized system; those did not exist at the time. While not often widely considered as a direct part of cyberspace operations, signals espionage – an early form of cyberspace warfare, due to its use of communication media and electronic systems – was used to achieve specific operational objectives as far back as World War 2. In one of the earliest instances of leveraging a specific communication medium as a means of conducting espionage for warfare-focused outcomes, the United States and Great Britain launched an attack that would befuddle and confuse the German adversaries for years.
In what would come to be known as "the Battle of the Beams," German bombers navigated from continental Europe to Great Britain by following a radio signal transmitted from a point of origin (Manners, 2016). The German pilots would know they were above their targets when they intercepted a second beam, also transmitted from continental Europe. That system ensured that German night raiders found their targets in the dark and returned home safely – until it was "hacked," that is.
British engineers discovered the German use of radio-frequency telemetry and coordination for the German combat runs and developed countermeasures that would modify the German command signals.
By broadcasting similar signals at precise times on specific German frequencies, British cyber warfare operators fooled the German bombers, causing them to drop their ordnance at a location chosen by the British. Additionally, the British cyber-attacks made return trips nearly impossible for the Germans, many bombers never finding their home base, and a few even landing at Royal Air Force fields, their pilots thinking that they had returned home (Manners, 2016). This use of the frequency spectrum (a critical portion of what is now commonly referred to as cyberspace) created effects that illustrate the operational power of cyberspace half a century before it was to be considered a warfighting domain.
