Jul 31, 2023
As conflicts rise across the world, hybrid warfare has become more commonplace. While you may not have heard of hybrid warfare before, it’s a topic that has been going around the news circuit for quite some time. To put it plainly, hybrid warfare is when one entity, usually a nation, utilizes many different forms of attack on another entity or nation. This can take the form of political attacks, military attacks, and cyberattacks.
Even though some form of hybrid warfare has been around for a long time, a technological version is currently on the rise because of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia that began in February of 2022. Blade Technologies, Inc. is here to talk to you about what is currently going on with hybrid warfare and cyberwarfare. It’s important to not only understand the current state of things but also how to safeguard against it.
The Current Lay of the Land
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the volume of cyber attacks across the globe in 2022 increased by 38% compared to what we saw in 2021. On top of that, cyberwarfare committed on countries that are part of NATO has increased by 300%.
Hybrid wars and attacks have only gotten worse, and direct confrontation between nations has increased because of it. Since many of these cyberattacks are coming from the Russian side, the national security of the United States and its allies is at risk. An increase in cybersecurity is crucial to the safety of American organizations in businesses.
What makes the cyber attacks even more frightening is that many are state-sponsored attacks, meaning that they are coming from the Russian government directly. Their goals are to compromise critical infrastructures, IT networks, steal sensitive data, disrupt important control systems, and deploy malware.
Hacking Groups are Also to Blame
Most of Russia’s state-sponsored attempts at cyber attacks on Ukraine have failed, but they did inspire independent and civilian hacker groups to begin attacking. In a report from the French defense firm Thales, it was reported 60% of all cyberattacks were conducted by Russian hackers.
Countries outside of Ukraine were largely affected by cyberwarfare. The attacks were carried out by hacker groups that believed in the Kremlin’s mission, rather than official state-sponsored groups.
In late 2022, Russian hackers were responsible for attacking government websites in Colorado, Kentucky, and Mississippi because of the United State’s support of Ukraine. The websites were temporarily knocked offline. More recently in June 2023, the cyber crime group CLOP stole files from BBC, Shell, Johns Hopkins Health Systems, British Airways, the state of Illinois, and the departments of motor vehicles of Oregon and Louisiana.
Your Business is at Risk
According to the 2019 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, 43% of all data breaches happen to small businesses. And with the increase in cyber crime, this number has only gone up. What’s even more frightening is that 60% of small businesses shut down completely within 6 months of a cyberattack.
Attacks on America’s businesses and governments can lead to widespread economic disruption. With all of the conflict going on, and with the understanding of how important small and medium businesses are to America’s economy, it’s not a matter of if your business gets attacked, but when.
Blade Can Help Protect You
Our team can provide expert consulting and cybersecurity support to help protect you and your computer systems from cyberwarfare and cyberattacks. We can help shield your small business from DDoS attacks, malware attacks, viruses, ransomware, online fraud, and more. If you don’t have any safety measures in place, now is the time.
With how common international and domestic hacking has become because of global conflicts, it’s important that you’re prepared. On top of proper security, it’s also important to invest in disaster recovery services.
Disaster recovery service can help your business bounce back after an outage. It's hard for companies to react to tech disasters in real-time, even if you run a small business. No matter the size of your business, disaster recovery planning is essential to avoid data loss or worse.
Learn More About Cyberwarfare from Blade Technologies, Inc.
If you want more information about cyberwarfare, how it can affect you, and what you can do to prepare, contact the Blade team today.
Contact Us