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> that describe police operations as "attacks"

Is there a more reasonable way to describe "police operations" whose goal is to disable portions of or function of a network?

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Good point. It is the standard term in security and cryptography.

It doesn't matter. You can't use in-group specialized vocabulary when talking to out-group audiences. You must either use common vernacular or somehow give new, commonly accepted definitions to the words you want to use.

I don't think "attack" is specialized vocabulary meant for an in-crowd.

For reasonable, common definitions of "attack," seeking to disable something or cause it to malfunction is an attack against that thing.

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