Cyberwar

06/02/2022

Cyberwar has been a prominent topic since the Ukraine war, even here in Germany. But what is cyberwar anyway and why is it being waged? And how is cyberwar expressed in the Ukraine conflict?

What is cyberwar?

Cyberwar is a "warlike" confrontation between states on the Internet. The goal: to inflict damage on countries, institutions and/or society electronically and to disrupt important infrastructures. At present, there is no uniform definition of the term, but it is generally understood to mean a confrontation with the aid of modern information technologies, including warlike characteristics. Finding a suitable definition is difficult because cyberwar involves many different strategies and techniques, such as activism, espionage, and terrorism. In addition, the variety of motives and actors is immense.

Hackers, for example, cripple important systems from power plants, transportation or hospitals, thus attacking a country's critical infrastructure. Also, the goal of a cyberwar is to sill important functions such as communications, financial systems, energy and water supply, or to spy and create security vulnerabilities. Such attacks can affect lives and health and are usually motivated by current (political) conflicts.

Why is a cyberwar being waged?

A cyberwar is fought for a variety of reasons and by several different groups, but three main categories can be summarized:

• Sabotage and terrorism
  These actions aim to cause damage indiscriminately. Most often, the attack is carried out by lone wolves or small international terrorist groups. Every year, cyber terrorists launch several attacks in which, for example, they shut down websites or tag them with political messages. If critical infrastructure is attacked, in bad cases, for example, the national power grid can be shut down.
  
  
• Espionage
  Gathering information that one is not officially entitled to is a staple in the history of international conflict. Cyber espionage in a cyber war is primarily conducted by governments waging a covert war.
  
  
• Hacktivism
  Here, civilian cyber activists attack governments and agencies. For example, the group Anonymous even declared cyberwar on Russia during its invasion of Ukraine to combat Russian propaganda and cripple its authorities.

How does cyberwar manifest itself in the Ukraine conflict?

In 2010, there was a cyberwar in which a virus called STUXNET was planted by the US and Israel in Iranian nuclear facilities to sabotage them. The reason: Iran was operating hidden nuclear facilities to produce nuclear bombs. In the current Ukraine war, however, cyberwar manifests itself more through the spread of disinformation. Vast amounts of fake news and incitement have been spread by the Russian side. In turn, the website of a Russian news agency (TASS) was paralyzed by a hacker attack and its content was replaced by an anti-war message.

However, in Ukraine the cyberwar started earlier than the war. Almost continuously, Ukraine was attacked by hackers before the invasion of Russian troops, with the presumption that these attacks originated from Russia and were authorized by the Kremlin. Ukrainian websites could thus be attacked and provided with threatening messages about the upcoming invasion. In addition, they attacked firewalls with a new malware and deleted data across the country.

Germany has further tightened its protections for critical infrastructure but also for systemically important companies and institutions due to current threats. The institutions are in close liaison with the BSI and economic protection to respond quickly and effectively to events.

Sources:

Cyberattack on Ukraine Leads to Nationwide Network Outages (msn.com) https://nordvpn.com/de/blog/cyberwar/
Briefly Explained: What is Cyberwar? | NordVPN