Cyberwarfare

Cyberwarfare has become a crucial battleground between nations. This largely hidden conflict, which has echoes of the Cold War struggle between Western democracies and communist nations, involves a range of activities: from online disinformation campaigns to the use of sophisticated computer worms to disrupt or commandeer government and commercial computer systems. Russia, the United States, China, Iran and other nations all have probed and hacked into other countries' computer systems. Some U.S. officials worry about a “cyber Pearl Harbor,” in which an enemy launches a surprise cyberattack to disable key public utilities such as the power grid. But other analysts believe the greater danger lies in the way Russia manipulated social media to spread disinformation and worsen political divisions in the 2016 U.S. election as it worked to boost the campaign of President Trump. U.S. intelligence officials say that Russia is at it again, and experts warn that new technologies such as 5G high-speed wireless and artificial intelligence make defending against cyberattacks even harder.