[M T]

I worry about Putin becoming desperate and increasing cyber attacks on the West, or even perhaps just facilitating a North Korea attack by sharing tools and advanced persistent threats already in place.

"Russia ready to wage cyber war on UK, minister to say"  (BBC, 11/23/24)

What we've witnessed in the West so far are merely limited forays.  Remember that Russia executed cyber attacks against the government and energy infrastructure in Ukraine in 2022.

You may find it inconvenient if Facebook gets taken off the air.  But in a war, the goal would be total chaos.

The energy infrastructure and assets like bank records would be attacked.  Areas without power for a day are inconvenienced; if it lasts a week, the supplies we live on will be in short supply, and people will react to that.  While major financial institutions are prepared for complete destruction of their facilities, the time until they come back on line would be stressful to society.  The Internet and other telecommunications as a whole might be widely unusable for extended periods.  We've seen bad actors encrypt the records of medical facilities and local governments.  Imagine if a bad actor managed to invalidate not only all your online accounts, but also those of everyone else.  Or, worse, suppose they made it so anyone could login as anyone.  You may think it bad if all the traffic lights turn red, but imagine if they all turn green.

A cyber war would be very destabilizing for everyone, but perhaps worse on the more developed countries.  Thankfully, I don't think anyone would start a nuclear war in response to a cyber war.  The world would eventually recover from a cyber war.

[M T]

I worry about Putin becoming desperate and increasing cyber attacks on the West, or even perhaps just facilitating a North Korea attack by sharing tools and advanced persistent threats already in place.

"Russia ready to wage cyber war on UK, minister to say"  (BBC, 11/23/24)

What we've witnessed in the West so far are merely limited forays.  Remember that Russia executed cyber attacks against the government and energy infrastructure in Ukraine in 2022.

You may find it inconvenient if Facebook gets taken off the air.  But in a war, the goal would be total chaos.

The energy infrastructure and assets like bank records would be attacked.  Areas without power for a day are inconvenienced; if it lasts a week, the supplies we live on will be in short supply, and people will react to that.  While major financial institutions are prepared for complete destruction of their facilities, the time until they come back on line would be stressful to society.  The Internet and other telecommunications as a whole might be widely unusable for extended periods.  We've seen bad actors encrypt the records of medical facilities and local governments.  Imagine if a bad actor managed to invalidate not only all your online accounts, but also those of everyone else.  Or, worse, suppose they made it so anyone could login as anyone.  You may think it bad if all the traffic lights turn red, but imagine if they all turn green.

A cyber war would be very destabilizing for everyone, but perhaps worse on the more developed countries.  Thankfully, I don't think anyone would start a nuclear war in response to a cyber war.  The world would eventually recover from a cyber war.