What will the "global battlefield of the future" look like?
"It's everywhere and everything," said retired US Air Force general Robert Latiff.
Latiff is the author of “Future War: Preparing for the New Global Battlefield." In an interview, Latiff said the new battlefield will likely include cyber-attacks.
"That would be fast," Latiff said. "It could take milliseconds. Or it may be extremely slow and subtle."
Latiff said that kind of "slower" attack could chip away at our trust in our systems.
"It's like they're doing with the election systems," Latiff said.
Latiff also said there are hypersonic weapons that can go 10 to 15 times the speed of sound, and lasers that operate at the speed of light.
"It's everywhere," he said.
Latiff said that can be a scary thought. He said he wrote the book so that people could learn about the threats that are out there. Latiff said people need to be aware of some of the cyber threats – and use some common sense things to help prevent attacks.
Such as?
"Automatically update your systems, and install patches when they come out," Latiff said.
And Latiff said the thumb-drive -- the little thing you stick in your computer -- can be enormously dangerous.
"You get them free, and you pick them up everywhere," Latiff said. "You have no idea what's on them."
Latiff said using software downloaded from an Internet site could also be dangerous, if you download from a non-trusted site.
"There's a lot of hygiene things the public could do," Latiff said. "But we don't."
Latiff spoke at Bismarck’s University of Mary.
