admin 
By BARANIKA. :-
Sending soldiers into trenches and onto the frontline is no longer necessary as the hell of war is increasingly conducted online. This is called cyber warfare and it involves the use of technology to attack other nations, governments, and citizens by attacking their computer systems.
Although there’s been no all-out “cyber warfare” between to nation-states to date, reports of state-sponsored attacks increase each year. Countries like Russia and China often appear in these news stories.
In June 2019, it was reported that US President Donald Trump opted for a cyber attack on Iranian missile systems as opposed to more conventional methods. The attack was a response to a takedown of a surveillance drone.
Unlike standard weapons of destruction, cyber warfare is harder to trace as elements like malware can be embedded into a system secretly. Often, state-sponsored attacks go unclaimed, leaving room for speculation. Then there are the occasions when hacking groups admit their crimes – problem is that they’re never “officially” liked to a particular state.
Dying on the front line is almost a thing of the past as war online is fast becoming the norm for many disgruntled leaders around the world.
One of the major problems with cyber warfare is it’s often difficult to work out who launched the attack. Due to the anonymity the internet provides, and the deceptive methods used by hackers to cover their tracks, it can often be difficult to trace the perpetrator of a cyber-attack.
Often it will only be the intelligence or guesswork surrounding the motives that will point to the country, organization or person that may be behind the crime.
Cyber warfare could potentially be used to destabilize a country by attacking critical infrastructure such as national power grids, financial markets or military databases. The damage resulting from an attack on this scale could be devastating.
What forms can cyber warfare take?
1.DDoS Attacks:
A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is an attempt to make an online service unavailable by overwhelming it with huge volumes of traffic from multiple sources. This attack method was used in 2007 when cyber warfare officially made the headlines.
After Estonia attempted to relocate a Soviet war memorial, Russia was accused of launching a huge DDoS attack in retaliation. More than 1 million computers were used to take down government, business and media websites .
Massive waves of spam were sent by botnets, and huge volumes of automated online requests were used to flood servers. The cyber-attack caused massive disruption and is thought to have cost the Estonian economy tens of millions of Euros in damage.
- Malware (Viruses, Worms, Trojans):
Viruses, Worms and Trojans are all forms of malicious software that can be used in cyber warfare attacks. They can be used to infect a system by being grouped with other programs, attached as files, installed by exploiting vulnerabilities in older software, or as in the vast majority of cases, they are installed when a user falls for a phishing scam and clicks on an attachment or downloads a file.
This method was used in one of the first nation-state cyber-attacks in 2010 when the Americans and Israelis collaborated to take stop Iran from producing Uranium that could be used in nuclear weapons.
A computer worm known as Stuxnet was placed on an infected USB stick and used to gain access to the Iranian computer systems. Although it didn’t completely halt operations it did destroy nearly 1,000 uranium enriching centrifuges and significantly reduced Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
- Unpatched Software:
Unpatched software is one of the main causes of computers getting hacked. Criminals are quick to take advantage of any vulnerabilities in older and outdated software to launch an attack.
‘Patching’ fixes these vulnerabilities so hackers are unable to gain entry into a system to steal sensitive data, lock users out, or demand a ransom. If patches are not applied, it provides cybercriminals with an easy access point to networks.
Is cyber warfare as dangerous as traditional warfare?
Some would argue that cyber warfare will never inflict the same damage that traditional warfare can cause, however, cyber-attacks are capable of causing massive economic and infrastructural damage that could ultimately endanger human life.
Former US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned of a ‘Cyber Pearl Harbor’ where an enemy state could hack into digital systems to shut down power grids or even gain control of switches and derail passenger trains.
This may seem far-fetched, but the damage that could be inflicted through cyber warfare is very real and there is already clear evidence that these tactics are already being deployed throughout the world.
Keeping up with the rapid advancements in cyber threats, and the looming threat that cyber warfare may cause can prove difficult, however, there are a range of cyber security best practices that organizations can adopt to strengthen their defenses.
Offence and Defence:
The world’s major nations are scaling up their cyber offensive capabilities with a surprisingly broad range of governments and businesses being targeted. Network infrastructure such as routers, switches and firewalls are being exploited everywhere, in many cases for “man in the middle” attacks on devices at 3rd party organizations, to provide ongoing access for intellectual property theft and future offensives.
Much of the hacking and malware activity that cyber warfare consists of is carried out on the target network very discreetly, and in most cases will go unnoticed. For this reason, it is important to use a method know as “baselining” to determine what normal activity looks like on your network. Next, you‘ll need to run algorithmic behavioral analysis on your traffic, preferably at every device, to detect any suspicious behaviors and alert on it.
Very useful article!!
Cyberwarfare by and large alludes to cyberattacks executed by one country state on another, it can likewise portray assaults by fear based oppressor gatherings or programmer bunches planned for advancing the objectives of specific countries. It tends to be hard to authoritatively ascribe cyberattacks to a country state when those assaults are done by cutting edge determined risk (APT) entertainers, however such assaults can regularly be connected to explicit countries. While there are various instances of suspect cyberwarfare assaults in late history, there has been no formal, settled upon definition for a digital “demonstration of war,” which specialists by and large concur would be a cyberattack that straightforwardly prompts death toll.
And can take numerous structures.
Very Informative article and it is very true that one of the major problems with cyber warfare is it’s often difficult to work out who launched the attack. Due to the anonymity, the internet provides, and the deceptive methods used by hackers to cover their tracks, it can often be difficult to trace the perpetrator of a cyber-attack. Thanks to the author for providing many more insights about cybercrime. Thanks!
Cyber warfare, a very emerging cyber crime which affects the people in large scale, just like a traditional warfare, and writer in this article has very carefully given the compared loss suffer caused by cyber warfare.. article contains a good recent updates as to where and which country opted a cyber warfare for certain purposes.
And stating the defence for this is a great idea to implement in this article.
This article is very helpful to understand cyber warfare.
Thanks to the author for providing many more insights about cybercrime. Thanks!Very Informative article and it is very true that one of the major problems with cyber warfare is it’s often difficult to work out who launched the attack
It is good that the article has very briefly talked about the level at which damage can be done by cyberwarfare. It was astonishing to know that what forms cyber warfare can take and how easily these kinds of things can be betided. It is appreciable that not only the problem is given but also the solution to the problem is given.
Interesting articles with good examples. I enjoyed this article very much. Don’t know why but I liked this article very much. Cyberwarfare is as destructive as a war. Its effects can be even more and disastrous. The examples mentioned enlightened us about the effects. The challenges faced during any war age are also mentioned which is very useful. Great one.
The author deals with an interesting aspect of the cyber world, where wars are fought online, countries invade their enemies on the cyberspace and utilize the possible anonymity online to their advantage. This is the new tactic, that countries around the world are using to achieve their strategic goals and such an article is quite appropriate to be read and understood. These days, it is not merely sufficient to maintain huge armies or to develop nuclear weapons, but also to protect the vital information stored online. There is also the menace of cyber-terrorism that needs to be looked into in this light. A good and enlightening read!
I did not know so much about this topic, but now I do. I am really inspired by this article, how well researched and informative it is. Cyber warfare as dangerous as traditional warfare, I think yes.
The article provides various insights to the topic of cyber warfare, which are unknown to the people at large. No amount of technology can overshadow the horrors of a conventional warfare, yet a cyber attack cannot be taken lightly. The author has done an in depth research into the topic. The author could’ve added some information about malware attacks such as the petya ransomware. The author has done an amazing job on the article by writing on the topic in such a simple language.
Cyber warfare is emerging as a greater risk to nations now. As nations are moving towards digitalization, they are also getting closer to cyber warfare. This article gives a brief knowledge about the same and the risks it involves.
very knowledgeable article about the cyber crime and their precautions, also gives the guidelines to protect from cyber crimes.
Cyberwarfare very important topic and emerging crime of the time. This article provided lots of knowledge regarding it though in a precise form,it would be more productive if it covered more defences in it.
such a simple and informative article. . article contains a good recent updates as to where and which country opted a cyber warfare for certain purposes.
The article covers cyber warfare which is must anticipated in the future and is deviant from traditional warfare. The Article is very informative and encourages every state in international platform to increase investment in creating defense mechanism in response of a potential cyber warfare from any other state.
Cyber war is a relatively unknown topic which was well explained by the writer. The article talks about various types by which cyber war is possible, it was simple to understand . It is strange how the world is finding newer methods to start a war. Overall, the writer has done an wonderful job.
A new term in dictionary to be known ” cyber warfare”. Commendable job by writer about sharing this and the recent examples also like of trump.
It is a very well written document and have to say that it is very enlightening and revealing at the same time and also the examples given by the author are much relatable to our lives and hence easily understood.but in my opinion the offence and defence part is kind of less elaborated.
Cyber warfare is an extreme jeopardy against any nation and could endanger lives. This topic must be unknown to many people with the help of this article most of us got to know about such a wonderful topic.
The author has very well explained the concept of cyber warfare and the threats posed by it. With the advent in technology, the disadvantages posed by it upsurges and one of the biggest threat posed by it is cyber warfare. The major problem with it being anonymity, it is extremely difficult to identify the source of cyber attack. The author has explicitly explained the threat by giving examples like hacking of power grid which may result in conducting black-outs in a country causing serious economic damage.
It is a well-written example with good examples. However, it lacks a proper conclusion.
The article is well structured and defined as The article provides various insights to the topic of cyber warfare, which should be known to most of the online users. The author brilliantly explains about the forms that welfare takes ,also explains about the offence and defence which would be highly helpful the person who are not aware of.