With the development of the internet came the misuse of the global interconnectedness of networks and computers and hacking, computer viruses and other social evils. However, the last seven years has seen a dramatic increase in the utilisation of the internet as a weapon and tool of espionage. In the past six years there have been six major international incidents which have revolved around net-based attacks, half of which occurred in 2009. In addition to these incidents, there are other attacks occurring almost daily: website defacements, phishing attacks, scams, hoaxes and malware.

The concept of information warfare first started gaining in prominence in the 1990's, and during the 20^th century concerns were growing, particularly in amongst the Western first world nations, about the threat of cyber-based attacks on societies that were becoming increasingly information-centric and reliant on the internet. From this emerged the concept of cyber-war (or computer network operations), cyber-terrorism and cyber-crime. Whilst some nations view cyber-war as simply a 'force-multiplier' to be used in conjunction with military operations, others see cyber-war as a separate, guerrilla-style of warfare that may be used for pre-emptive strikes. Cyber-war is not limited by physical or political boundaries as conventional military operations are, and may be used to create effects in the political, economic, social and physical domains of the world. Many suggest that cyber-crime or cyber-war is victimless or the potential for 'collateral damage' is minimised; however the new cyber-attack techniques may result in the cyber-equivalent of collateral damage and the number of victims of cyber-crime is growing.

New tools are becoming more readily available; resulting in more people having the capability to carry out attacks. There is also a shift in the style of attacks: previously international incidents resulted in a spate of website defacements and 'nuisance attacks'; however in recent incidents attackers crippled all net-based communications in an entire country. This is becoming increasingly relevant to South Africa; as the internet bandwidth to the outside world increases via new international links, the greater the probability that South Africa could be seriously affected by a significant web-based incident. Consequently new legislation and policies are being drafted in South Africa to counter this new threat, such as the draft Cyber-security Policy that was released in February 2010.

This paper will provide a conceptual analysis of major attacks, criminal activity and other incidents on the internet to illustrate how the web is becoming weaponised. The views of various nations regarding cyber warfare, and particularly the use of the net as a weapon, and the threats posed will be discussed.  Examples of the specific tools or 'weapons' will be given. The relevance of these threats to South Africa and the African continent as a whole will be analysed, and examples of the possible consequences (both direct and collateral) of cyber-wars on South African enterprises will be provided.