What is Cyber Warfare?
When a country or military organization launches a cyberattack against another country, this act is known as cyberwarfare. This is a military operation aimed at spying on, destroying, or stealing sensitive information from other countries’ computer systems and technology.
Why Cyberwarfare?
Countries use cyberwarfare to disrupt or damage military systems and infrastructure to gain military advantage over their adversaries.
Cyber Warfare is a highly effective way to spy on your enemies and gather information about their military capabilities, political plans, and other sensitive information.
The cost of launching a cyberattack is very small compared to a full-scale military attack.
It is very difficult to trace the origin of cyberattacks. Cyberattacks can come from anywhere and leave no trace. This allows countries to launch attacks without the risk of being caught.
You can inflict great damage on your opponent with cyber attacks. A cyberattack on a country’s power grid could lead to widespread power outages, a cyberattack on a country’s financial system could lead to disruption of financial transactions, and a cyberattack on a country’s nuclear power plant could lead to widespread blackouts. It could cause a facility meltdown…and a possible nuclear catastrophe.
Information manipulation and propaganda dissemination are other cyber warfare tactics.
How can a country be prepared?
Countries can acquire new technologies and invest more in research and development to increase their resilience to cyberattacks.
countries should implement measures such as backup systems and alternative communication networks to make critical infrastructure more resilient to cyberattacks.
countries should focus on regular training of their employees to equip them with the skills they need to defend against cyberthreats.
countries must work together to share technology, information and intelligence to defend against the common threat of cyberattacks.
Countries also need to improve their cyber forensics capabilities to identify the sources of cyber attacks. This helps guilty nations hold themselves accountable on the world stage.
International Cooperation
Convention on Cybercrime: It is also known as the Budapest Convention and aims to reduce cybercrime by increasing cooperation between countries in investigation and prosecution.
International Telecommunication Union (ITU): This is a dedicated United Nations organization that publishes guidelines and recommendations on cybersecurity best practices. Some of the regional initiatives, such as the
ASEAN Cyber Capability Program and the EU Cybersecurity Agency, promote cyber defense cooperation and support with member and partner countries.
Global Forum on Cyber Expertise: This is an international platform that facilitates cooperation between various governments, the private sector and civil society to share expertise and information to improve cyber defenses. .
Cyber Security Tech Accord: This is a voluntary initiative of over 150 technology companies to improve cybersecurity by sharing information on cyber threats and technologies to build resilient cyber defenses. work together to make it happen.
Example of cyberwarfare
Sony Pictures Hack
The attack on Sony Pictures followed the release of the film The Interview, which presented a negative portrayal of Kim Jong Un. The attack was carried out by North Korean government hackers. The FBI has found similarities to previous North Korean malware attacks, including code, encryption algorithms, and data erasure mechanisms.
Bronze Soldier
In 2007, Estonia moved a bronze soldier statue associated with the Soviet Union from the center of its capital, Tallinn, to a military cemetery near the city. Estonia suffered a number of serious cyberattacks in the months that followed. Her Estonian government website, media and bank were overwhelmed with traffic in a massive denial of service (DoS) attack, resulting in it going offline
Fancy Bear
CrowdStrike claims that the Russian-organized cybercriminal group Fancy Bear targeted Ukrainian missile forces and artillery between 2014 and 2016. The malware was distributed via an infected Android application used by the D-30 howitzer squadron to manage target data.
Ukrainian officials made extensive use of apps containing the X-Agent spyware. This was considered a highly successful attack, destroying over 80% of her D-30 howitzers in Ukraine.
Conclusion
Cyber warfare has become a major challenge for many countries, including India, as all sectors of society are becoming more dependent on technology and the internet. It could have a significant impact…as an economy. It is important that India can defend against cyberattacks and conduct cyber operations if necessary. To this end, India should develop technical skills, increase investment in training of skilled manpower and update her Cyber Security Policy 2013 according to new age technologies and threats. Resolving these issues will allow India to ensure national security and effectively use cyberspace in the event of conflict.