The Growing Threat of Cyberwarfare

When was the last time you sent your friend a letter? When was the last time you used a pen and paper to file your taxes? When was the last time you got your salary in the form of cash in an envelope? My guess would be sometime last century, or in many cases never. The world has moved online.

With the recent invasion of Ukraine and the threat of WW3, many people try to find answers by looking at history. More accurately, WW2. We could learn certain things from it, but there is one key difference between then and now – the internet. More precisely, our entire lives turned into a code, which is stored in thousands of separate servers.

Back to the conflict at hand. Russia has used cyberwarfare many times before. 2007 cyberattacks on financial, media, and government websites in Estonia where many spambots just crashed the servers. 2015 attacks on France, where Russian malware took down a French broadcasting service. Attacks on Georgia, Germany, Poland, South Korea, Ukraine, UK, U.S., and many others.

Many experts are keeping a close eye on the conflict in Ukraine and how it may escalate online. The cyberwar could even outlast the physical battles. Even though many have predicted it, there have not been any devastating attacks on Ukraine and its allies yet. Is it yet to come? Or are Russian hackers blatantly refusing to carry out these attacks in the name of terror? Such an argument could be made as the international hacker group Anonymous now famously warned Russia that many cyberattacks on the Russian government will come from within the country.

The internet is a powerful tool that could be used to spread war propaganda. In these dire times, it is vital to keep a watchful eye when surfing the web, use strong passwords, two-factor authentication, and not click on random links. Western governments should also start allocating resources towards cybersecurity, employing full-time professionals.