In the digital age, every country is vulnerable to attack regardless of its military capabilities. A cyberattack is when one or more computers attacks another computer or network. Their are two reasons for an attack; either to disable a computer or to access its data. It is a clandestine practice used by companies to learn valuable commercial secrets from rivals. Cyberattacks have also been used by anarchists attempting to cause chaos and bored teenagers attempting to kill a few hours.
Arguably the more concerningly, cyberterrorism has been utilised by governments and militaries to control populations, damage infrastructure, spy on rivals and even influence elections.
Two of the most notorious cases of military cyberterrorism were the successful Iranian attempt to hack and control a US military drone and the Stuxnet and Flame virus that infected Iranian nuclear facilities.
Every major global power now has official cyber capabilities. Although these are officially defensive cyber departments, their work remains extremely secretive and they all have the capabilities to conduct their own cyberattacks at will.
Israel is the leading global force in cybersecurity. The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) have dedicated a significant amount of time and resources into their cyber-security force after stating that Hamas was engaging in cyberterrorism to undermine the state of Israel.
A former CIA operative has said that the greatest threat the Chinese military pose to the USA is through its propensity to conduct cyberattacks. He gives the example of the three generators which power the homes of all 300 million Americans. These generators are antiquated and not well defended at all and he claims the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have the ability to turn off the US national grid at will. While the pentagon has the capability to hit back with its own cyberattack on China, the results of disabling the US national grid would be devastating as all homes, schools, hospitals, social services, police forces and businesses require electricity to function. He also mentioned the fact that espionage agencies can gather more intelligence on rival countries in an afternoon spent hacking government agencies than traditional spies could gather over decades.
A recent documentary, called The Dissident, outlines Saudi Arabia’s use of cyberspace to control its own population. The royal family, effectively led by Muhammed Bin Salman, has hired a team, each with hundreds of twitter accounts, who post opinions and hashtags which are complimentary towards the Saudi royals whilst also crushing posts critical of the regime. Meanwhile, the CCP controls the entire internet in China and monitors all usage by Chinese citizens (unless they are using VPNs which is illegal). Whilst the internet is generally a force for citizen independence from government control, these two governments have shown that it can be used by political leaders to monitor and control their populations and also manipulate public opinion. These are extreme examples as both countries are governed by repressive regimes. However, they have set a dangerous precedence to other authoritarians and even democratically elected leaders by demonstrating the level of control over a population that is attainable by harnessing control of cyberspace.
One of the furthest reaching examples of cyberterrorism was conducted by the Kremlin into the 2016 US presidential election. The Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA), supported by the Kremlin, created thousands of Facebook accounts pretending to be American to support radical political groups and distribute misleading and fake information. This was done to sway the American electorate towards Donald Trump and harm Hilary Clinton’s during the election cycle to increase political discord in the USA. It was incredibly successful, Trump was elected and and the USA was has been in a state of bitter political division and polarisation. What is particularly disturbing about this electoral interference is the fact that it was technically done within the confines of international law and therefore Russia cannot be officially sanctioned for it.
This is why cyberterrorism is so hard to fight and also why it is so widely used by governments and militaries around the world. Our current international laws which govern warfare, espionage and interference have now become obsolete as they do not account for attacks and spying through cyberspace. Cyberterrorism is such an attractive tool for governments and militaries as it offers plausible deniability due to the anonymity provided by the internet.
On the evidence of the last decade, it seems likely that most future conflicts, domestic and international, will be fought in cyberspace. The challenge at hand to stop malevolent forces from weaponizing cyber space is vitally important but also incredibly complex due the nature of the internet. International organisations need to rise to the challenge and create international laws to punish actors who are proven to have engaged in cyberterrorism. More importantly,, internet and social media companies need to take drastic action to make cyberattacks more difficult. Fact checking and verifying social media accounts could help but remain unlikely due to the immense size of the internet and the lack of incentives to do so. While these measures should be adopted, they will never completely prevent cyberterrorism. Cyberterrorism is the new reality of international conflict, espionage and interference. The unmanageable nature of the internet means that this is impossible to change.
Groves Media 