No system is impenetrable in today’s hi-tech military environment – brace up for attacks!

THE US Cyber Command must have used hyper-aggressive malware to attack Iran’s command and control systems. In today’s super hi-tech military environment nothing in the military arena is impenetrable.

The most advanced military systems can and will be penetrated. Iran’s heavily guarded missile network was disabled because of a flaw woven into its protection shield.

Nations have developed a new paradigm that reflects realities of cyberspace which expands the battlefield anywhere the internet extends. With the advent of computers and the networks that connect them, a new door has opened in the hallways of warfare.

Cyber warfare scenarios will lead to attacks against banks manipulating stock prices, disabling trains and traffic lights, leading to gridlock and chaos.

We’ll witness attackers combining destructive attacks focused on critical infrastructure with data manipulation on a massive scale.

We’ll witness the possibility of hackers disabling power stations, opening dams and the premature meltdowns of nuclear reactors.

There is a dialectic opposition between attack and defence, destructive and protective means, which dictates the development of warfare means and methods.

Examples are rivalry of the sword and shield, arrow and chain mail. This kind of relationship also applies to cyber warfare and cyber attacks, an organic part of military confrontation of the 21st century.

Offensive cyber attacks have become frequent occurrences at all levels. Advanced cyber warfare changes how nations assess their enemies, meet their challenges, and enact policies that match the growth of the cyber domain. Any nation that ignores the reality of cyber warfare will remain in the Stone Age.

There’s good reason to believe that cyber warfare is the ultimate weapon of the 21st century. It’ll be a game-changer unlike any other weapon in human history – it leaves no finger- or footprints, there are no explosions, no fallout, no radiation.

Its lethality lies in its capacity to achieve victory without firing a single metal weapon.

There are no geographical boundaries and the domains are beyond the reach of traditional norms, such as the Geneva Convention. Plausible denials will become future diplomatic responses; intrusion by cyber stealth becomes the new tool for global dominance. Warfare has always been executed within easily defined periods of time and geographic boundaries. Wars are declared and when objectives are reached or abandoned, combatants return home.

Cyber warfare is fought on keyboards with armies of ones and zeroes acting like soldiers executing orders.

Cyber or digital warfare involves crippling adversaries through information systems on the internet.

Electronic warfare and cyberspace operations are complimentary and have potentially synergistic effects. Formulations and terms or this type of warfare, as well as its components and tasks, differ in various countries.

As a last resort, a nation facing defeat, could resort to launching an electromagnetic pulse weapon that could destroy and devastate electrical systems over a vast range, sending humanity back into the dark ages.