- Battle Damage Assessment (BDA)
- A composite score quantifying physical damage to cloud infrastructure from military strikes. World War Watcher's BDA aggregates per-provider damage estimates across AWS, Azure, GCP, and Oracle using the formula max(live_probe, editorial_override). Values range from 0 (no damage) to 1.0 (total destruction). The current BDA reflects confirmed Shahed-136 drone strikes on AWS ME-CENTRAL-1, physical damage to Azure nodes, and GCP cooling system failures.
- BGP Route Withdrawal
- The removal of Border Gateway Protocol routing announcements by internet service providers, effectively making networks unreachable. During the Iran-US war, Iranian ASNs (AS12880, AS44244, AS197207) showed 73%+ route withdrawal within four hours of the first strikes, indicating near-complete internet isolation. Monitored via RIPE RIS, RouteViews, and Cloudflare Radar.
- Ma'at Protocol
- World War Watcher's four-test editorial verification framework for detecting bias in conflict intelligence. Named for the Egyptian goddess of truth and cosmic order. Tests: (1) Agency inversion—would language change if actors were swapped? (2) Amplification chain—trace to root source. (3) Civilian asymmetry audit—are casualties counted equally? (4) Counter pre-amplified framing. See /methodology for full specification.
- ASSESSED Badge
- An editorial status override applied when a cloud provider's official API reports 'operational' but OSINT evidence confirms degradation or destruction. The ASSESSED badge indicates that World War Watcher's editorial team has overridden the provider's self-reported status based on verified ground truth. Currently applied to AWS ME-CENTRAL-1, AWS ME-SOUTH-1, AWS Health Dashboard, and GCP Status.
- Admiralty Confidence Rating
- A two-character intelligence grading system combining source reliability (A through F) and information confidence (1 through 6). A1 indicates confirmed information from a reliable source. F6 indicates information that cannot be judged from a source of unknown reliability. Used in NATO intelligence and adapted by World War Watcher for OSINT source evaluation.
- Chokepoint Cable
- A submarine telecommunications cable that passes through a geographic chokepoint vulnerable to disruption. The Iran-US war has affected cables transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the Bab el-Mandeb strait, and the Red Sea. Meta's 2Africa cable declared force majeure in the Persian Gulf on Day 14. World War Watcher monitors 16 chokepoint cables using RIPE BGP and IODA signals.
- Infrastructure Warfare
- The deliberate targeting of civilian and dual-use infrastructure—data centers, submarine cables, oil terminals, power grids, internet exchange points—as a military strategy. Distinct from traditional kinetic warfare in that effects propagate through interconnected systems: a strike on one AWS availability zone cascades to dependent services globally.
- Circular Reporting
- A failure mode in intelligence analysis where a single original claim is reported by multiple outlets, creating the false appearance of independent corroboration. The Ma'at Protocol's amplification chain test specifically detects this: an official statement repeated by five wire services is still one source. Root source count, not publication count, determines corroboration.
- Escalation Velocity
- A qualitative assessment of the rate at which a conflict is intensifying: accelerating (new escalation domains opening), steady (conflict continuing at current intensity), decelerating (de-escalation signals emerging), or paused (temporary cessation). Assigned per war day in World War Watcher's commentary dispatches.
- Force Majeure (Submarine Cables)
- A contractual declaration by a cable-laying vessel or cable operator that extraordinary circumstances (in this case, active military conflict) prevent continued operations. Meta's 2Africa cable project declared force majeure in the Persian Gulf on Day 14, suspending the cable-laying vessel's operations indefinitely. This is the first confirmed major civilian digital infrastructure casualty of the conflict.
- Hormuz Throughput
- The percentage of normal tanker traffic transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Pre-conflict baseline represents approximately 20% of global oil supply. By Day 14, throughput had collapsed to 3% of baseline. Monitored via AIS vessel tracking data and UKMTO maritime advisories.
- Source Tier
- World War Watcher's credibility classification for information sources: wire (Reuters, AP, Bloomberg—weight 1.0), institutional (BBC, NYT, Al Jazeera—weight 0.6-0.8), analysis (Bellingcat, Janes, ISW—weight 0.5-0.9), data (OONI, RIPE, Cloudflare—weight 0.4-0.9), state media (RT, PressTV, CGTN—weight 0.3, always labeled). The 364-source registry is publicly available.