According to media reports, a study of potentials of several countries in the field of information warfare has been conducted by the US Homeland Security.
 
The study has been undertaken within the framework of improving National Strategy for Cyberspace Safety of the U.S.
 
The list of countries that pose threat to U.S. security in the information field includes Russia, China, India, Iran, North Korea and Pakistan. As countries that pose a potential threat to the U.S., so-called "Israel", Syria and republics of former Yugoslavia are listed.
 
Data processing is an important target in modern warfare.

  We should expect actions that might compromise the individual nodes of internal corporate and government information networks, worsen the quality of communication, disrupt trade and financial transactions, provoke failures in critical systems (transport, health, etc.).

  Such actions cannot be classified as a direct aggression, but have a significant impact on county's economy, control capacity of the state and society in general and can be conducted both in peace and war time.
 
Analyzing Russia's ability to carry out such actions, the authors of the study point out that Russia now has a fairly huge doctrine of information warfare. Russian Armed Forces are cooperating with experts in the field of information technology and academic circles to improve their methods and techniques.

  In addition, Moscow has now experience in conducting information warfare against Chechen news websites.
  Experts also point out that Russia continues to conduct search and spy operations in public and private information networks of the United States.
 
In general, the experts emphasize that recently, the potential of information operations against critical U.S. data systems significantly increased.