Is saying that the cyberspace is a part of the space of current hybrid war which still has no military dimension but, in fact, cybernetic one, describing the reality in advance? Should we say that today, as the state, we are involved in an ongoing war? There is no doubt though, that the phenomenon of war suffered crucial changes. The impulse for it was the Cold War, which was not open, not happening on the frontline but consisted of array of replacement conflicts, spy games and arm race. But still the main players were states, not always openly USSR and US but the opponents were relatively easy to determine. What can today be an element taken from that period is building the ambient of fear. The anxiety and threat that despite of lack of visible military conflict there is an ongoing war accompanied the societies involved in the Cold War operations and today touched by the hybrid war. The current war can be happening closer than it seems – and in place of states there are many non-state actors involved. It is also difficult to distinguish the soldiers and civilians and if currently we are at peace or at war.
“In the cyberspace there is the state of confrontation – in the technical and informational dimension”, says Kamil Basaj from Info Ops Polska Foundation. “The informational confrontation has already the permanent character and is escalating, both from the side of the Russian Federation and tools employed by the West in order to stand ground to and defend themselves against the manipulation processes. In the technical dimension we speak about processes related with the cyber-spying, getting information about persons, events, also unlisted information – it is happening daily. It is executed mostly by states, but we are not talking only about the Russian Federation here, because there are also other very active actors on the geopolitical map of the world, not necessarily with friendly attitude towards Poland. We are talking about China, North Korea, Iran and a wide array of non-state actors – that means cellules, frequently financed by state structures, executing offensive actions against our allies. Among others, because of this, the cyberspace has been considered during the NATO summit in Warsaw the operational domain, same as the military operations on the ground, on the sea and in the air.
WP
