Column: Cyber Warfare: A New Era of Warfare

By Harris Morand, Freshman

War has been with humanity for a while. With disagreements and disputes of all sizes and matters, humans have been fighting each other for very long. As a matter of fact, we’ve even had conflicts, of such large size, it becomes a global conflict (or, as we call a world war).

 But, as humanity has been evolving, so have our tactics for warfare. And, as humans invented the computer and the internet, it wasn’t long before we took our conflicts there.

Nowadays, cyber threats can be in all shapes and forms. Ransomware, spyware, adware, and all other sorts of malware are modern day-digital threats. To add, cyberattacks can come in the form of personal hacks, and government attacks.

For example, we all know about the war in Russia and Ukraine. It’s been going on for a while now, but, if you’ve seen some of the news, cyberattacks are mentioned explicitly. 

To quote NPR, aka National Public Radio, “Ukrainian officials say they have been fighting the first hybrid war, in cyberspace and on the ground. A year in, digital tools remain an important — if ambiguous — component of the conflict”. 

Moreover, in both 2015, and 2022, Russian cyberattackers were able to compromise energy distribution companies and a major power plant in Ukraine. This was a result of Russian cybercriminals/terrorist organizations.

It is true that Russia is somewhat of a safe place for cyber criminals/terrorists, so long as they predominantly target victims of disliked foreign nations.  More specifically, ransomware is the problem. After all, many Russian hackers have been reported to be attacking businesses and hospitals and making them pay up, to unlock their devices.

One instance this past year found a cyberattack on MSI, and mass impersonations of its software. MSI stated that they recommend people download software from their official website. 

According to the official blog of MalwareBytes, almost 2 terabytes of sensitive cloud data was stolen and leaked. From what was stated to the public, MSI was asked to pay $4 Million for a ransom demand. Also, its MSI Afterburner software, an overclocking tool, was largely impersonated by malicious actors, making infected copies. 

It’s been stated that hackers are given protection in Russia, so long as they target ‘somewhat opposing nations’. 

This makes it quite evident that Russia can be quite a cyber threat, especially to opposing nations, like the USA, Ukraine, UK, etc.

While Russia is certainly a possible threat, it is not the only nation. Specifically, nations like China and India are also large threats.

Both are notorious for cybercrime, however, they are very notable for scams, in particular with India. As a matter of fact, there are over 3 billion phishing emails sent a day. 

And though it may take you less than 12 seconds to realize that email/SMS message about them detecting some weird login from Ghana or  on your bank account, or how your Amazon Prime subscription is about to run out is a complete scam, your grandparents, for example, may not if they aren’t tech-savvy.

However, back to the main topic, being Cyberwarfare, Russia’s massive group of employed cybercriminals may pose a threat to international cybersecurity. With this, the age of spies might be dying, as top-secret government messages can be intercepted and decrypted with ease, especially these days.

This means that if there ever was unfortunately to be a WW3, it would likely be fought at least partially in cyberspace. What makes this even deadlier is that the attacks, if done properly with encryption, can be completely anonymous. Even if it uses notorious Chinese malware, it could be a 30-year-old Russian guy in his mom’s basement. 

Or even a guy from South Africa.

 In other words, missiles and air strikes usually come with a return address, but cyberattacks usually don’t.

Most nations don’t want to go to war with several suspected nations, when they’re hit with a massive cyberattack, after all. If they did, it would probably be a wild goose chase. After all, nuclear tensions could only make things worse. 

Not to be any more grim than the general tone of the article already is, but cyber warfare is getting closer and closer to becoming a reality. And if worse happens, we could be looking at another cold war between major superpowers.

But whatever happens, we’d better not get AI involved. Because while human brains cannot be corrupted, hijacked, or taken over by malware, there’s a good chance AI programs could be vulnerable.

For my final input on this precarious situation, I argue we’d be best not to get AI involved in this. Because, if you think about it, while human brains cannot normally be hijacked, corrupted, or remotely compromised by a malicious 3rd party, AI programs can. 

What this means is that if America utilizes its AI intelligence infrastructure against an enemy like Russia, for example, our weapons could easily be turned against us or be compromised, in a matter of seconds.

In short, the current global political situation is already precarious, in some aspects. However, a large or even global-scale cyber war could disrupt major aspects of life, both political, martial, and civilian, such as world economies, communications, and even the internet itself. 

With the fact that major world superpowers have armies of hackers on their sides, makes this concern all the more realistic.