The Evolution of Cyber Warfare in Information Operations Targeting Estonia, the U.S., and Ukraine

Abstract

This comparative international case study provides a context for considering the evolution of cyber technologies as elements of hybrid warfare, including information operations (IO), capable of killing people, as well as impacting political elections and physical infrastructure (such as power grids and satellite-based communications and weapons systems). Threatened by “autonomous battle networks,” the “Internet of Battle Things” has been considered a domain of modern warfare by the United States since 2011 and by NATO since 2016. Focusing on three historic cyberattacks against three modern democracies—Estonia in 2007, the United States in 2012, and Ukraine during the 2013-2015 conflict—the study shows how computer warfare, first reported in the 1990s, has become integral in warfare for both state and non-state actors—particularly for information warfare waged by proxies to create confusion and manipulate public opinion via satellites that can penetrate national boundaries and firewalls with armies of zombies and botnets.