The impact of information technology in biological and military sciences

Computers and the internet play the most conspicuous roles in all aspects of human

life. Computer-related technologies have a strong impact on the world. This has

attracted many students and professionals to the field of information technology. There

are thousands of websites and web hosting opportunities available, which are evergrowing. Many information technologies, from the earliest computers to email and the

Internet has been developed for scientific applications. Biology is at the core of

informational science, based on the information embedded in the genetic code. IT is

essential to store, manage, and decipher the mass of information produced in work in

these areas. IT plays the following roles in biology: IT-aided instruments, such as gene

sequencers, DNA microarrays, and microscopes, etc.; Large shared, Internet-connected databases; Data analysis methods, used in assembling and searching gene

sequences; Imaging and visualization, such as MRI; Modelling and simulation are used

to model protein folding and to help understand complex biological systems such as

cells, tissues, organisms, and populations. In a sense, biology has become driven by the

information contained in the genetic code, and information technology is critical in

generating and managing this information. The growth in the importance of information

technology is exemplified by the growth of several new interdisciplinary subfields of

biology. One is “bioinformatics,” defined as the application of computers, databases,

and computational methods to the management and analysis of biological information.

The human genome project and genome sequencing projects in other organisms,

together with new technologies that analyse gene expression patterns, have created

vast amounts of data. Bioinformatics has become essential for almost every aspect of

data management in modern biology. Another subfield is “computational biology,”

which uses mathematical and computational approaches, such as mathematical

modelling and computational simulation techniques, to address theoretical and

experimental questions in biology

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Information warfare (IW) is one of the new concepts receiving a great deal of attention.

There is no doubt IW is a concept the modern military officer should be familiar with, for

advancements in computer technology have significant potential to dramatically

change the face of military command and control. Governments spend an untold

amount of money establishing agencies to gather and maintain information on potential

threats to their security. Computer hackers have been tried, convicted and sent to

prison because they conspired to provide access to proprietary information. The

absence of critical information can spell the difference between success or failure in

the modern political or military arena. Information warfare is an orchestrated effort to

achieve victory by subverting or neutralizing an enemy command and control (C2)

system while protecting the use of C2 systems to coordinate the actions of friendly

forces. A successful IW campaign seizes initiative from an enemy commander; the IW

campaign allows allied forces to operate at a much higher tempo than an enemy can react to. Most modern political and military C2 systems are based on high-speed

communications and computers. It follows that this information infrastructure, also

known as an "infosphere", will be the arena in which information warfare is waged. Any

system or person who participates in the C2 process will be a potential target in an IW

campaign. An IW campaign will focus on the enemy infosphere. It will be necessary to

isolate, identify and analyse each element of an enemy infosphere to determine

portions that can affect the OODA loop's size (OODA stands for the steps in a

commander's decision-making cycle – Observe, Orient, Decide and Act). Once these

areas of the enemy infosphere are identified, an attack against critical nodes would

deny access to information, destroy the information, or render it useless to the

adversary forces. Even more damaging, information warriors could alter data in a

network, causing the adversary to use false information in his decision-making process

and follow a game plan of the friendly commander's design. The software for this

consists of programs designed to collect information on, inhibit, alter, deny the use of,

or destroy the enemy infosphere. This software would be the primary soldier in pure

information warfare. One example of a software asset is called a KNOWBOT. This could

serve as a virtual software spy. Other examples of software warfighting assets have

exotic computer hacker names: "demons", "sniffers", "viruses", "Trojan horses", "worms"

or "logic bombs".

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