Cyber Warfare: All you need to know

Whenever we hear the word war, the first thing that comes into our minds is many men and many weapons. It is because from the history of man wars have been like this. Times have been changing, and so have been weapons, but man force is still a vital ingredient in wars. However, things have been changing a lot in the past few decades. These decades have been the decades of technological advancements, causing warfare to go beyond the physical attack.

So, wars also have an impact on this technological advancement. Nowadays, it is not even necessary to physically send a whole lot of men to attack or capture someplace when you can do it right from  computer networks. It is where cyber threats takes us. So, here we will be elaborating on cyber war in the light of its past, present, and future in hopes that you will be prepared in a cyber warfare scenario.

What is cyber warfare?

The word cyber means the involvement of technology and, oftentimes, government computer systems, while warfare means any activity included in the war. Cyber warfare means using technology and computer systems in wars to harm enemies through national security threats or disrupt critical operations.

When cyber warfare is taking place, it is not necessary to create harm by physically attacking, but it can still be considered an act of war. It can involve harming the digital systems of an enemies government agencies and other threats over the internet, and there are a lot of such acts that can be included in cyber warfare.

How has cyber warfare been in the past?

Although things have been through a lot of evolving for a long time, cyberwars are not too old. These things started in the 1990s with many advancements in the world of computing and specifically online computing. It was when the world was being told about the wonders of online computing.

At the same time, some bad actors in the system were preparing for their attacks. Such attacks wouldn't be an issue but a whole country getting under attack was a major issue, and here is how things went in the past days.

The first cyberwar in the world

The first instance of cyber war in the world is known from 2007. It was the Web War 1, and this time, no superpower of the world was under attack. Estonia was under attack, and Russia was on the other side targeting the major online banking systems, ministries, and media.

A series of DDoS attacks (Distributed Denial of Service) on critical infrastructure did the job of making the whole online system of the country go down, which disrupted critical operations and caused a major national security issue. The reason for this attack was the removal of a statue from the Soviet era from Tallinn, which is the capital city of the country.

However, there was no physical damage. Since then, there have been several cyber warfare attacks by different countries, including Russia, China, and many other countries.

The present age cyber-warfare

The Cyberwars in the past may not be that damaging, but things have been very tough in the present age. Involving the military is not an issue for cyber warfare now because of the advancements of technology in the present-day world.

If we take a look at the present age world and only consider the incidents 2-3 years back, we will see how cyber warfare is getting common all over the world.

Cyber Warfare involving military

Things were very serious between Israel and Palestine in 2019. This was the time when a group of hackers was working from a building in Hamas. A Cyberattack on Israel was in its early stages. However, the response from Israel was with a kinetic military attack. The result was the destruction of the building and the loss of human life.

Ukraine-Russia war 2022

Cyber warfare is also thought to be one of the most powerful tools in this war. Ukraine aims to initiate a cyber warfare attack targeting Russian websites from different state organizations as well as businesses. There has also been reports to the US private sector that Russia is also looking into cyber attacks.

Future of cyber warfare that we can expect

There is no wrong in saying that cyber-attacks are getting more common. Another thing getting common is the involvement of the internet and technologies in our daily lives. It brings even more opportunities for cyber warfare to happen.

If you take a look at the history of cyber warfare, you will note how a simple cyber-attack was the reason behind the loss of confidential fields with billions of Dollars.

This loss can cause a lot of market inflation in a country as its currency goes down in the stock market. So, we can say that maybe there will be no need for physical attacks when you can defeat a country by a series of digital attacks.

Wars from offices can be a thing.

On the other side, wars from offices can be a thing. While the hackers hack into the digital systems, officials may be controlling drones and missiles from their offices. This could lead to unimaginable levels of destruction in the world.

Is it possible to survive in cyber warfare conditions?

Yes, it is possible to survive in any war situation. The only thing that you need is some strategic planning and survival gear. While your strategies will be dependent on the situations, you need to make sure to have every survival equipment.

It will be best if you keep some old-school tools to deal with cyber espionage. It is because while the enemy may have some cyber-attacks on all the soft services like:

• Mobile phones and their service
• Online banking
• Official websites
• Media and other things,

So, they will never be able to hack into your old-school survival gear and tools.

Final Remarks:

Wars are always problematic for people, especially men, because they have to cover the borders. However, with the involvement of technology and advanced cyber weapons like drones, it has become simple and easy. However, there may not be any need to fight at the borders in the future. It will be necessary to survive during the war situation.

So, we must always have hold of our survival gear to deal with any survival situation. The best move will be keeping things up to date according to the latest warfare tactics like a cyber attack. In this way, strategic survival will become the easiest.