According to a security report published by Check Point Research (CPR), some nations are using cyber attacks as state level weapons to terrorize politicians and country populace. The midyear report highlighted two terms ‘Country Extortion’ and State affiliated ‘Hacktivism’ and stressed on the fact that these two terms will emerge as a major threat in near future that will inflict more damage than witnessed in military conflicts.
For instance, recently witnessed developments in the Russian war with Ukraine. It was observed that the former nation was indulging in physical as well as virtual conflict with Ukrainians by taking down their critical infrastructure to put a dent to their confidence levels of winning the war on a permanent note.
It is a war where the win will come from two sides as the victimized nation will fall to knees within no time. If the current war situation is taken as an example, Ukraine would have long before fallen into the hands of Kremlin, if it did not receive military, essentials and financial aid from western nations like the United Kingdom and the United States.
Coming back to the topic, nations like China, North Korea, Iran and Russia have been using digital attacks as virtual weapons to take down their adversaries. Ransomware, that has now emerged as data stealing malware, is now being developed in such a way that it has now grown into a threat that offers financial and social gain to its spreaders.
In coming days, email infection chains, ransomware spread evolving into a more disjointed ecosystem and threatening of nations with cyber-attacks is being well-predicted.
