Cyberspace as a New Battlefield - Borderless Conflict and Technological Evolution Since the 1990s

Cyberspace as a New Battlefield - Borderless Conflict and Technological Evolution Since the 1990s

With the end of the Cold War and the decline of all-out warfare between nations, a new battlefield emerged: cyberspace. With the spread of the Internet, social infrastructures such as finance, telecommunications, energy, and transportation were networked one after another, and not only the military but also state operations themselves became increasingly digitally dependent. As a result of this structural change, computer codes and malware replaced physical missiles and tanks as the new weapons.

The evolution of related technologies contributed to the transformation of cyberspace into a battlefield: In the 1990s, viruses and worms (e.g., the Morris worm) appeared, demonstrating mechanisms for automatic infection that exploited system vulnerabilities; in the 2000s, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks hit the social infrastructure and were used against Estonia and Georgia; and in the 2000s, the United States and other countries were hit with cyberattacks. In the 2000s, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks hit the infrastructure, and attacks against Estonia and Georgia caused national disruption. In addition, Stuxnet in 2010 severely damaged Iran's nuclear facilities, demonstrating that cyber attacks can destroy physical infrastructure. These examples made it clear that cyber weapons can be designed and executed outside of the traditional military industry.

Defensive technologies also developed at the same time. Firewalls, intrusion detection systems (IDS), and cryptographic communication technologies were developed as the defense infrastructure for states and companies, but attack and defense have always been at odds with each other. Zero-day attacks and APTs (Advanced Persistent Threats) have slipped past traditional defenses and enabled nation-wide information theft and industrial espionage. Furthermore, the proliferation of cloud computing and IoT has expanded the attack surface indefinitely, and the battlefield is no longer limited.

Thus, cyberspace as a new battlefield has expanded inseparably with the evolution of technology. Attackers have taken advantage of anonymity and immediacy, and defenses have failed to keep pace with the growing scale and complexity, resulting in a composition of states, companies, and individuals that are all exposed to risk. It was precisely because of this fact that "technology gave birth to the battlefield" that the framework of international security had to be redefined.