The New Battlefield: How Hybrid Warfare Redefines Modern Conflicts

Recent events raised international concern over potential sabotage and the vulnerability of vital communication networks as two key undersea fiber-optic cables were severed last week in the Baltic Sea. One of the cables was connecting Lithuania and Sweden, while the other connected Finland and Germany. The whole incident is treated as potential sabotage and none of the involved governments believes the cables were cut by accident. These incidents are viewed as part of a broader pattern of hybrid warfare, where physical sabotage is combined with other non-conventional tactics such as cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns. The Baltic region has long been a focus of tension, especially following the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline explosions.

What is Hybrid Warfare?

Hybrid warfare is a strategic approach that blends conventional military tactics with non-conventional methods, such as cyber warfare, economic manipulation, disinformation, and other irregular tactics. Hackers play a critical role in the cyber warfare component of hybrid warfare, leveraging their skills to disrupt, degrade, and manipulate the digital and information domains while saboteurs operate covertly to physically disrupt, destroy, or manipulate key assets. Often times they work together with saboteurs assisting hackers by creating access points for cyberattacks (e.g., installing rogue devices on networks or sabotaging defenses) or hackers amplifying the impact of physical sabotage by causing cascading failures in connected systems (e.g., attacking a power grid after a physical substation has been destroyed).

The History of Hybrid warfare

Hybrid warfare has evolved as a modern military strategy that blends conventional and unconventional tactics to achieve strategic objectives. The concept has ancient roots, with examples like the Trojan Horse and guerrilla warfare, but it has taken on new dimensions in the digital age. The foundation of today’s interconnected world was laid in the late 1960s with the development of ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network).

Created by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), ARPANET was designed as a resilient communication system for researchers and military operations. ARPANET introduced the concept of breaking data into packets for efficient transmission, a principle still used in modern networks. Designed to withstand partial outages, ARPANET was a precursor to today’s internet in its resilience and adaptability. During the Cold War, ARPANET provided the U.S. with a technological edge, ensuring communication continuity in the event of an attack. It laid the groundwork for military command-and-control systems and, later, the public internet.

The emergence of Internet Protocol (IP) and it’s importance in Cybersecurity and Hybrid Warfare

The Internet Protocol (IP) forms the backbone of global communication networks, enabling devices to connect, communicate, and share data across the internet and private networks. In the context of cybersecurity and hybrid warfare, IP’s central role in modern digital infrastructure makes it both a critical asset and a potential vulnerability. IP enables data routing across devices in essential sectors like energy, healthcare, transportation, and defense. Modern industrial control systems (ICS) and SCADA systems rely on IP networks for remote monitoring and management.

Hackers exploit weaknesses in IP-based systems, such as poorly configured networks, outdated protocols, or open ports. Common attack vectors include Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, IP spoofing, and exploitation of vulnerable IoT devices. Saboteurs often combine cyber and physical tactics for greater impact. They often target data centers which house critical IT infrastructure, making them an attractive target for saboteurs aiming to cause widespread disruption. Saboteurs’ ability to exploit IP addresses, servers, and data centers is a potent element of hybrid warfare, emphasizing the need for vigilant defense measures across both cyber and physical domains.

Safeguarding Internet Infrastructure Against Hackers and Saboteurs: Multi-Data Center Replication and Global Server Load Balancing

A single point of failure can render an entire service unavailable, which is why spreading your infrastructure across multiple data centers is a critical defense. Replicating your service across several data centers ensures redundancy and resilience against both cyber and physical threats. The key benefits of such a robust system are High Availability for your services, optimized load distribution and geographic resilience.

A GSLB plays a critical role in managing traffic across multiple data centers. Unlike traditional load balancers that operate at a single site, a GSLB distributes traffic globally, ensuring optimal performance and availability. A more modern version, the client-side GSLB does the load balancing on the user device dynamically in real time, hence is even more resilient to DDoS attacks and offers an additional layer of protection.

The aftermath

Protecting internet infrastructure is not a one-time effort but an ongoing process. As attackers evolve their tactics, countries and organizations must continuously enhance their defenses. Combining multi-data center replication with a high-quality GSLB ensures resilience and high availability while providing a foundation for robust cybersecurity.

By taking a proactive approach, organizations can minimize the risk of downtime and maintain user trust, even in the face of sophisticated hybrid threats from hackers and saboteurs. The digital battlefield is constantly shifting, but with the right architecture and tools, organizations can stay one step ahead.