While the ongoing crisis in Ukraine has deservedly captivated the world’s attention, and the threat posed by Russian cyberattacks is real, the world must keep in mind that other significant threat actors such as China and North Korea are operating on a global scale are continuing their reconnaissance operations as usual.
The International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Military Balance+ database, which looks at global military trends, observed the military cyber capabilities of China, Russia and the US, primarily based on active-duty military forces that have a role in cyber operations. It says that 33 per cent of Russia’s military cyber forces aim to make “effects”, compared to 18.2 per cent of China’s forces and 2.8 per cent of US troops’ cyber forces. This information came from the composition of the leading cyber forces based on the roles each unit was given.
They explained that “effects” is a general term that refers to actions that deny, degrade, disrupt, or destroy. Proxies can also carry out these actions on behalf of a government actor. Also, it can include a wide range of other skills, like being able to research vulnerabilities, write or use malware, and keep control through exploits.
“Russia is an excellent cyber power.” Cyber capabilities are part of a bigger picture of information operations. Strategic documents often refer to cyber security as “information security,” the Military Balance report said. Russia updated its National Security Strategy in July 2021. It added a section on information security and said that more military cyber forces and capabilities needed to be built up. The report said that Russia also spends a lot of time and money responding to incidents, with about 80% of its forces devoted to the job. Twenty-nine per cent of the US side and 9.1 per cent of the Chinese side are in favour of the same thing. The US, Russia and China spent about the same amount of time and money on cyber intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, with the percentages ranging from 50 per cent to 54 per cent.
It also said that China had made much progress over the last decade in its military cyber capabilities. It has used offensive cyber operations in recent military exercises.
Meanwhile, there has been a significant increase in the number of cyberattacks. A US-based private cybersecurity firm Mandiant had released a report that hackers operating on behalf of the Chinese government breached the computer networks of at least six state governments in the United States last year. The report does not refer to the compromised nations or explain the incursions in May. However, the Chinese group believed to be behind the hacks, APT41, is known to conduct hacking operations for traditional espionage and financial gain.
In another incident, a London-based think tank released a report on suspicious cyber activities by China and Russia. The report states that Russia and China have more military cyber forces than the United States.
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