The war that is raging between Russia and Ukraine also involves cyberspace, where Russian hackers are reportedly trying to disrupt critical infrastructure in Ukraine. This cyber war is predicted to spread to the global realm.
In recent weeks, Russian hackers are said to have targeted Ukraine's government and banking systems. The ESET security bureau said it had tracked a sophisticated piece of malware called a wiper, which aimed to wipe data from the attacked systems passing through Ukraine.
Russia itself denies it although many doubt it. "We have never carried out criminal operations in cyberspace," the Russian side said in response to the report, reported by The Guardian, Saturday (26/2/2022).
Regardless, the attack on Ukraine made western countries wary of fear of a much bigger digital conflict. Officials in the United States and Britain have warned businesses to be on the lookout for suspicious activity from Russia on their networks.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, warned that European countries must be vigilant about cybersecurity in their respective countries.
Cyber security experts state that a cyber war conflict between Russia and western countries is a possibility that cannot be ruled out. But maybe the scale is not very large.
"That's something that is very likely to happen. But I think it's also important for us to see how the reality of a cyber war looks like," said John Hultquit, president of intelligence analyst firm Mandiant.
"Cyber warfare is sometimes compared to real war. But the reality is, most of the cyber wars we see do not involve violence," he added.
However, sophisticated malware can cause significant losses in a cyberwar. Russia itself according to Hultquit has long tried to infiltrate the infrastructure of countries such as the US, UK and Germany.