Since 2015, the world has entered an era of cyberwar. For the first time, a power outage was caused by a hacking attack on a power plant in Ukraine. Later, an airport in Kyiv was also attacked by hackers, and a dam in the United States was hacked.
In Ukraine, roughly 200,000 to 300,000 people were without electricity for about three hours. This was a targeted attack by Russia against Ukraine. It happened in the middle of winter. People could have died if it had lasted longer. This made cyberwars a reality. On the other side, there are also casualties. Two ISIS hackers have since been killed in targeted strikes. The U.S. military uses unmanned drone strikes to kill hackers.
Although extremist hacking organizations, such as ISIS’s hacking units, are the most dangerous, governments also have good reasons to resort to large-scale hacking attacks.
It is extremely difficult to prove who is behind such an attack. When organizations report that the Russians, Chinese, or Americans are behind an attack, they almost never have airtight proof. Companies can link such attacks to each other because, for example, the same servers or passwords are used. They then look at the affected targets and who might have a motive.
The Russians are behind the attack in Ukraine. No one can prove it completely. According to cybersecurity experts, European governments are very aware of the threat, but there is little they can do. The problem is that all potential targets—such as trains, airports, and power plants—are in the hands of private companies. That makes these problems much harder to address.