Killnet: Russian Hacktivists DDoS US Airports, Government Websites

While none of these attacks have long lasting effects, it does show a trend that, in addition to state-sponsored threat actors such as Fancy Bear and Sandworm, Russia has a vast following of unsanctioned hackers that are growing increasingly more organized and which continue to carry out attacks against any targets that these fringe groups perceive to be enemies. This trend—which manifest on both sides of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and includes groups that act in favor of Ukraine or Russia like KillNet, or the afore mentioned Anonymous—shows that cyberwarfare is escalating to a world-wide stage and involves any volunteers that have access to the internet. There are no borders or boundaries that cannot be traversed by these organizations, and their missions are self-prescribed based on loyalties that may or may not be rooted in citizenship, nationality, residency, or any other conceived connection, making identification of enemy cyber-combatants much more difficult for security professionals and strategists. It is hard to say how this change in cyberwarfare can affect the traditional battlefield but given the rate that the levels of sophistication that are being employed by these smaller, less funded, all volunteer groups is increasing, it is safe to say that their actions could be significant enough to sway a battle towards one side or the other. Enemy forces are no longer clearly stationed behind a front line of combat. Instead, combatants are now able to participate in wars from their living room or an internet café from within the borders of the country the support, or while residing in the nation that they are targeting and using the very infrastructure that their mission calls for them to takedown. And these hacktivists, or cyber warriors, do not have to pass any tests or meet any requirements, other than to have a willingness to participate and a desire to support the mission. All of this leads to the question as to whether or not cyberwarfare can continue to be looked at as a lesser form of battle, and to decide if these acts are to be considered acts of war in the truest sense, and met with response in kind. For NATO nations, that means whether or not to invoke the 5^th Article, which is a call to arms in collective defense, stating that an attack on one NATO nation is an attack on all NATO nations, and potentially thrusting the world into a very real war in response to attacks in cyberspace.