Cyber attacks are the new “Cold War”

US President Obama characterized foreign cyber-threats as a "national emergency". During the State of the Union address, he said that "if the US government does not improve cyber defenses, we leave our nation and our economy vulnerable".

The President and CEO of IDG Communications wrote an article about cybersecurity, stating "significant data breaches at Anthem, Sony, Home Depot, eBay, JPMorgan Chase, Target and many more have caused headline-grabbing business upheavals that worry customers, affect profit margins, and derail corporate careers".

Cyber-threats or crimes can be orchestrated in various ways. Targets can be aimed at critical infrastructure, manufacturing, power grids, or water supplies. They could be aimed at disrupting the availability of websites and networks, or at stealing trade secrets and financial information. Others could be driven by espionage, vandalism, terrorism, sabotage, or any form of criminality. Activities of the US and British governments have focused on surveillance and hacking of telecommunications.

Also read: NATO wants to bomb for cyber attacks

Warfare today (and in the future) is (and will be) fought differently.In the 1950's with the creation of more destructive bombs and weaponry, the idea was 'Mutually Assured Destruction' (MAD).The movie War Games helped us learn that there are no winners. The warfare ideology today is 'Multilateral Unconstrained Disruption' (MUD). This unrestrictive warfare is meant to disrupt societal functioning; to 'poison' information to elevate distrust of all computer information.

Also read: Stuxnet exposing Obama's cyber-war hypocrisy!