IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2023 - 45

that " [m]ore than one thousand Web sites " were
affected [38]. Despite the widespread attacks on
websites, it would not seem that these actions reflect
total warfare. Without attacks on the functionality of
the Internet, operating systems of weapons, industrial-control
systems (ICS), or data breaches that could
compromise strategic operations of a military (or
nation), these actions do not represent a clear and
present danger to combatants and noncombatants.
Exemplars of persistent cyberwarfare
and cyberwar
While authors might argue that the war metaphor
does not apply to cyberoperations [39], the attacks
conducted by the Democratic People's Republic
of Korea (North Korea) represents a clear instance
of persistent hostility directed toward other nations
such as the Republic of Korea (South Korea) and the
United States of America [40], with the explicit goal
of systematically destroying these nations' resources.
Despite its continued development of conventional
weapons and weapons of mass destruction,
North Korea's current strategy and tactics represent
a useful exemplar of cyberwar. Starting in June 1950,
the Korean War ended in an armistice in 1953. While
the war has not formally concluded, the North and
South agreed to end the war " in principle " in 2021.
Yet, a formal agreement remains illusive, with the
continued nuclearization of the peninsula and pervasive
cyberattacks [41] representing clear indicators
of continued distrust and hostility. For instance,
in 2020, 1.5 million cyber-attacks against South Korea
were attributed to North Korea [36]. Many attacks
are directed toward critical infrastructure, allowing
North Korea to engage in continuous attacks while
avoiding direct military conflict.
A similar observation can be made about China's
tactics. While China's actions toward Taiwan differ,
the Government of Taiwan has reported millions of
daily cyberattacks for a total of 1.4 billion " anomalies "
between 2019 and August 2021 [42].5 While persistent
and broadly defocused toward a nation, these
kinds of activities fall short of Total War, reflecting
cold wars rather than a cyber " World War III " [43].
These tactics do not appear to be restricted to Taiwan,
with China using similar operations in other
nations, such as the advanced persistent threat,
dubbed Operation Titan Rain [44].
5It is not clear what proportion of attacks are attributable to China.
September 2023
Cold wars have the potential to become hot given
that cyberoperations can result in the loss or irreparable
damage of physical and financial that adversely
affect human activity [8], [45]. For instance, Marr
[46, p. 12] suggests that the Stuxnet worm cyberattack
on Iran constitutes the " first case of genuine
cyberwarfare in history. " However, the severity of
these attacks lies on a continuum, although the
2007 DDoS attack on Estonia was disruptive, it did
not cause the kind of significant damage that the
Stuxnet worm attack caused to the Iranian nuclear
program, that is, destroying one-fifth of its nuclear
centrifuges [47]. Despite the intention and physical
damage, such limited cyberattacks-in terms of
length, extent, kind, and number of targets-do not
constitute Total War unless used in conjunction with
other strategies and tactics using physical resources.
Exemplar of hybrid warfare:
Azerbaijan-Armenia War
A recent demonstration of the integral role of technology
in warfare is the 2020 conflict between Azerbaijan
and Armenia which employed autonomous
and intelligent systems. The conflict focused on a
disputed region (Nagorno-Karabakh). Analysts noted
that the two forces were evenly matched in terms of
their conventional warfare capabilities [48]. The key
difference between the two forces was that Armenian
forces relied on traditional weapons (e.g., artillery
strikes, high-altitude missile defense systems, T-72),
whereas Azerbaijan utilized reconnaissance and
" kamikaze " drones, strike unmanned aerial vehicles
(UAVs), and remote planes to draw the fire of Armenian
forces [49]. Despite the relatively inexpensive
nature of Azerbaijan's weapons (in both financial
and human terms), it ultimately won the conflict with
minimal losses, leading to a temporary ceasefire -
although tensions continue [50].
When cyberwarfare did occur in the conflict, it
was arguably not coordinated with kinetic operations,
nor was it directed toward critical infrastructure
[51]. For instance, in 2007, Armenian hackers
defaced government websites. However, by 2016,
Armenian and Azerbaijani forces (along with Turkish
hackers) utilized DDoS attacks and server disablement
[52]. Later, Azerbaijani hackers leaked
Armenian security service data [53], and the Azerbaijani
government's websites hacked in the 2020
conflict [54]. Thus, an absence of coordination
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