Cyber security in developing countries, a digital divide issue

Abstract

Based on the case study of the cyber war between Russia and Georgia in August 2008, this paper is a theoretical deliberation in an attempt to illustrate connection between the Digital Divide and cyber security. Through a qualitative study of cyber warfare between the two countries, one on the developed and one on the underdeveloped side of Digital Divide, it shows that disadvantaged states are subject to cyber insecurity. As a result, even though relatively low dependence of their vital systems on online networks supposedly makes them less vulnerable to cyber offensives, disruptions to communication infrastructures cause these states turn dysfunctional. To test the dependence of cyber security on Digital Divide, this paper also reviews other instances of coordinated cyber-attacks between countries, but in these cases, with both parties digitally advanced (Russia vs. Estonia, China vs. USA). These cases show that differences in states' capabilities and available resources allowed them to withstand and relatively quickly repel cyber offensives without outside support and great harm. The general conclusion is that country's position along Digital Divide translates into the level of that country's cyber security, which serves as a litmus test for the level of its cyber power that, in turn, is indicative of the country's strategic political standing among other states.