Jean Daniel Colombani
When it comes to wars and weapons, we know of specific categories regarding all the armies in the world.
Land, air, navy and space.
Now we are confronted with the fifth generation of warfare and weapons;
The electronic ones
From the recurring news lately in the US, it seems they are in high alert and preparing, in the midst of the Russia-Ukraine war, for the most dangerous and sophisticated cyber attacks to ever happen. All states and large corporations rely on the internet and the digital world for their proper functioning. This puts them in jeopardy directly.
This new category of warfare is called “Cyber warfare”. The cyberwar that, until recently, was, in an almost utopian way, a thing of the distant future. And it can destroy the entirety of a country’s economy or even its army in the blink of an eye, without needing a single bullet.
So how does it work?
Who is behind it, when is it used, who uses it?
Who are the victims?
What are the objectives?
Is Greece ready?
Has Greece ever been a victim of this kind of war?
All will be answered in this article.
In the time of war between Russia-Ukraine and Russia-USA…
Russia, as the reigning champion, has its own government officials, cyberhackers who constantly carry out attacks towards many different targets. I have to report that the Ukrainian authorities are proceeding with a wide-ranging thorough investigation into a cyberattack on websites of the Ministry of Defence and their Armed Forces. And on April 7, Facebook and Meta’s algorithms were attacked in order to attack Ukrainian government officials…
On March 25, the United States accused Russia of carrying out a cyberattack against nuclear facilities in the United States. And on March 23, U.S. President Joe Biden met with thousands of U.S. businesses and alerted them to Russian cyberattacks, and also provided them with infrastructure and ways to protect themselves from them.
On April 12, Russia, in an orgasmic show of force, attacked a Ukrainian power company and threw 2 million people into darkness.
In an unprecedented announcement on May 2, Germany’s government warned citizens to buy certain essentials for survival from supermarkets, enough to last for 10 days, out of fear of a cyberattack that could paralyze the country’s entire system.
As I told you, “Cyber warfare” , is no longer a science fiction story. It’s time for cybersecurity to be the fifth generation of the military. Now, all economically developed countries attach great importance to the electronic security field’s development. Imagine that Saudi Arabia is second out of 193 countries and first in the Middle East region and Asia in the Global Cybersecurity Index.
Germany, as a global economic power, has the field of government security and the development of new technologies and protection techniques as one of the most important branches of its military. In 2017, Germany had an army of over 13500 “cyber soldiers”, as they are called, and these soldiers are not like the others.
They have very high knowledge and heavy online equipment. You should know that the main difference between ordinary soldiers and cyber soldiers is that a single one of the latter can attack and harm millions of people at the same time. Remember, it only took one Russian cyber soldier to be able to cut off the power to 2 million Ukrainian citizens. And we have other examples…
In 2016, Russian hackers attacked Kiev’s international airport, resulting in flights and air traffic being stopped for many hours. Something very important to mention is that these cyberattacks, and cyber warfare in general, do not have to be done using the internet. It turns out that in 2010 there was an infiltration of the Iranian reactor and created a global mess without even using the Internet, it was done with a flash drive. A flash drive doesn’t need internet access, all they had to do to hack it was simply turn off the power supply to the reactor.
Many countries announced the creation of a cybersecurity sector in their military, including the US, Russia, France, UK, Iran, and NATO- which launched the “Cyber coalition Exercise”. Some of the most dangerous attacks that can happen are on infrastructure. Power stations, nuclear power plants and nuclear reactors, on trains, where routes and tunnels can be mixed, civil aviation, with no plane being able to take off or land, a merciless and absolute chaos…
• This is what Russia did to Ukraine in 2016. Hospitals: all hospital data getting shuffled or wiped out. Picture this, for example; We are at the bank and the employee informs us that there’s a system failure (something that has certainly happened to most of us). Think about all the trouble we will go through, having to sit there waiting with nothing to do. Now think about what would happen in case of a hack! So, imagine how paralyzed a country can get when attacked in its entirety- since everything we do is directly related to some system.
This new electronic weapon has 2 types, there is the offensive weapon and the defensive weapon.
Which is what happened in 2019 in the state of Baltimore – suffered a cyberattack that paralyzed the whole state for 21 days, banks, hospitals, government agencies, etc. – and, after three months, the state of New Orleans. And both states announced a state of emergency as if they were in a real war, only in this war not a single bullet was fired.
Because, as everything is done electronically and through the internet, the flow of everyday life stops. Our whole life is through a screen and numbers. Internet payments, electricity through the internet, advertising, internet shopping; The economy and politics of the whole country is based on the internet.
Greece has been the victim of electronic attacks many times, with the latest in January 2022 attacking the state’s digital infrastructure, the Parliament, and the Sotiria and Asclepieion hospitals in Attica, where an attempt was made to steal data. For the defence of the country, there are various bodies and ministries involved. Indicatively:
National CERT , remains in NIS, and there is cooperation with the Ministry of Digital Policy on computer security issues (which maintains a coordinating role).
• Cyber Defence Directorate, which is responsible for the cyber defence of the Hellenic Armed Forces (dealing with cyberattacks on a daily basis to protect the information networks and infrastructure of the Armed Forces).
• Electronic Crime Prosecution of the Greek Police, which operates mainly by prosecuting acts (meaning that it takes measures after the occurrence of the act), in contrast to the two aforementioned bodies, which mainly have a role in shielding the country. It is noted that, according to officials of the Ministry of Citizen Protection, this ministry will draw up strategies and policies on such issues.
• Hellenic Authority for the Safeguarding of the Privacy of Communications (ADAE).
As far as the private sector is concerned, mainly financial institutions and companies adjacent to the field, as well as telecommunications companies, are investing in cybersecurity. “Smaller companies usually cannot invest in cybersecurity because the cost is too high for them and/or because there is no regulatory framework that obliges them.”
Generally, attacks in Greece were done by intercepting data from individuals in the background, then asking for ransom etc. to retrieve said data (Ransomware).
* A word of advice to all families, invest in the learning and education of children in cyber security and information technology, unfortunately our country is in great need of specialized personnel as the new order of things requires new defence prospects. Both as a country and on a personal level.
