Infowar on the web: measuring mass annoyance

ABSTRACT Research on Information Warfare on the Web is still at an early stage and the question of the true nature of Cyberwarfare actions that target the Web needs to be answered on both conceptual and methodological levels. Existing research proved that the Web is a new battlefield with specific strategic objectives, but research needs to create assessment tools to validate the impact of Cyberattacks, especially when they aim at "soft" targets like Web sites or Social Media platforms. This position paper serves as starting point of reference and discussion and wants to clarify several misunderstandings in definitions of Information Warfare and Cyberwarfare. It also offers methodological directions to identify actions and measure their impact to answer the question: Is Cyberwarfare just a weapon of mass annoyance?