Ride the Lightning

The Next World War Will Be A Cyberwar

June 23, 2015

That is the opinion of David Gewirtz who wrote an article about this topic for ZDNet.

There are storms on the horizon that are certainly worth watching. The apparent Chinese hack into the Office of Personnel Management has no doubt left many intelligence agents vulnerable along with anyone who has sought a clearance or who works or worked for the federal government.

Economic cyberwar can level the playing field. Our own vast wealth, along with our dependence on technology, may make us more rather than less vulnerable. In a shooting war, our wealth and technology are enormous assets. Not so in cyberwarfare.

The recent agreement between China and Russia to not launch cyberattacks against one another may create an Asian axis of power. Having those two "cuddle up" is ominous.

Could state-sponsored hackers cause an economic meltdown? Likely. And could they disable critical infrastructure? Almost certainly. Are we prepared to fight back? I would argue that the OPM breach proves rather conclusively that we are ill-prepared. I suspect many people in the U.S. government know how quickly we must learn the art of cyberwar, but are we moving fast enough – and along the right paths?

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