The democratization of cyber warfare — and what it means for CISOs – csoonline.com

The democratization of cyber warfare — and what it means for CISOs  csoonline.com

For most of modern history, sophisticated and costly warfare had a high barrier to entry. In order to maintain a significant tactical advantage, you needed money, infrastructure and highly trained human resources. In the physical realm, you needed trained and capable warfighters along with relatively expensive and specialized weaponry, made by skilled tradesmen. In cyber, you needed operators who understood networks, vulnerabilities, exploitation and how to move through an environment without getting caught. Warfare was typically a whole-of-society contest that came down to who had the best and most vast resources at their disposal. Those barriers are coming down. They have always been, but now it is accelerating more rapidly than ever before in human history.

This is called the democratization of warfare, and it is terrifying. Its ramifications in cyber are being felt throughout both the public and private sectors, on battlefields and in boardrooms. Warfare has been democratizing for centuries I’ve seen the democratization of warfare firsthand. In Ukraine, relatively inexpensive, commercially available technology has put capabilities into the hands of individuals that would have been unimaginable not long ago. Look at Moscow. In 2023, drones reached the Kremlin itself, marking the first attack on the Kremlin since Nazi Germany bombed it during Operation Barbarossa in World War II. A target that had gone untouched by an enemy