Cyberwarfare - What Is, Types, & Examples

As technology advances, the concept of warfare is no longer limited to guns and bombs. Countries and criminals are now developing new strategies to counter enemies through cyber-attacks, leading to a new era of cyberwarfare.

Let’s explore cyberwarfare in detail.

Table of Contents

• What is Cyberwarfare?
• Types of Cyberwarfare
• Purpose of Cyberwarfare
• Examples of Cyberwarfare
• Difference between Cybercrime and Cyberwarfare
• Conclusion

What is Cyberwarfare?

Cyberwarfare and cybersecurity go hand in hand. Cyberwarfare can happen to organizations or other such entities. But, in general, it is used to attack a country’s core digital system. The core digital system usually consists of highly sensitive data; through cyberwarfare, such data is handled in a way by cyberwarfare wagers to disrupt a country’s overall security. In addition to harming a country’s security, there might be other digital risks for the country as well.

In brief, it would be correct to say that cyberwarfare uses cyberwar techniques to damage computer systems in the target country. Furthermore, it can lead to the death of people as well.

Cyberwarfare, generally, attacks a country’s financial infrastructure, public infrastructure, electrical systems, safety infrastructure, and military resources.

Types of Cyberwarfare

In understanding what cyberwarfare is, you might understand that there are several types of cyberwarfare attacks, and they vary in intensity. The following are the common types of attacks.

1. DDOS

Distributed denial-of-service attack, popularly known as DDoS attack, makes computers inaccessible for target users. In the physical world, a DDoS attack is similar to the manipulation of wires to disrupt important conversations in a country’s security. DDoS attacks computers or networks with poor or insufficient security systems.

2. Propaganda

It is an elaborate plan to manipulate or brainwash a country’s people via the press. The press includes online news platforms as well. Propaganda to control or shape people’s views against or in support of a certain incident or ideology.

3. Economic disruption

A popular example of economic disruption because of cyberwarfare is the 2017 attack in Ukraine and on the UK National Health Service. The cyberwarfare appeared to be ransomware, but it caused high-scale damage to organizations. The goal of such an attack is to disrupt the overall economic situation of an organization or country in general.

4. Surprise cyberattack

The purpose of a surprise cyberattack is to take down a country’s prestigious or important organizations by surprise to exhibit the attacker’s power. This type of cyberwarfare is categorized as a nontraditional form of cyberwarfare.

But what is the main purpose of cyberwarfare? The following section will answer that.

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Purpose of Cyberwarfare

There are several purposes for cyberwarfare attacks. However, the following are a few of the most common purposes of these attacks. The following list answers the question of what cyberwarfare is at a higher level of understanding.

• Military: This is done to gain control of the target country’s military cyberspace.
• Civil: This is done to instil fear in the people living in the target country.
• Hacktivism: This is done to spread a particular ideology among the people in the target country.
• Income generation: This is done to gain monetary benefits from the people living in the target country. Generally, financial institutions are looted via income-generation cyberwarfare.
• Nonprofit research: Sometimes, cyberwarfare happens for the betterment of a country. For example, if the world is going through a crisis and a particular country has solutions for it, the country usually implements them and shares them with other countries as well for the betterment of the country in general.

Examples of Cyberwarfare

The following are a few notable, recent cyberwarfare attacks:

• The Guardian Cyber Attack: In December 2022, the UK newspaper faced ransomware attacks that affected their internal and communication systems, among other things.
• Royal Mail Ransomware Attack: In January 2023, Royal Mail was hit by a ransomware attack that affected their international deliveries.
• NotPetya Ransomware Attack: In 2017, Ukraine was hit by a massive ransomware attack, also known as NotPetya, which affected its power grid, bank servers, and transportation unit.
• In 2009, Google, the search engine giant, encountered the problem of cyberwarfare. Though China has strict internet access rules, Google was offered permission to capitalize on internet usage to a certain extent. After realizing that the Chinese government had breached its server, Google had to move from .cn to Hong Kong to prevent further damage. The attack included accessing emails from people in the US, China, and Europe.

But how is cybercrime different from cyberwarfare? The following section will answer.

Difference between Cybercrime and Cyberwarfare

• Cybercrime is illegal and always motivated by criminal motives. However, cyber warfare can also benefit a country.
• The effect of cybercrime is psychological, while the impact of cyber warfare is at the national or international level; the latter, in most cases, involves commercial exploitation.

But how exactly did cyberwarfare evolve in today’s world? The history and evolution of cyberwarfare are quite interesting as well. It initially began with experiments, but with the development of technologies, its impact has grown as well. Currently, cybercrime affects over USD one trillion of the global economy.

Conclusion

Future cyberwarfare attacks are predicted to be a significant cyberwar technique. Artificial intelligence is also predicted to be involved in future cyberwarfare strategies.

To conclude, cyberwarfare technologies have both positive and negative impacts. The rise of anti-cyberwarfare technology helps us kill attackers’ ill motives and reduce the effects of cyberwarfare. Develop skills in encryption through a future-proof cyber security engineer course.