"Cyberwarfare and the Extension of the Cold War: Late 2000s-2010s, the Dawn of the Digital Cold War."

"Cyberwarfare and the Extension of the Cold War: Late 2000s-2010s, the Dawn of the Digital Cold War."

In the late 2000s, a quarter of a century after the end of the Cold War, the world faced new aspects of confrontation. The Russian tradition of information warfare, dating back to the Soviet era, was modernized by the proliferation of the Internet and digital technology, with the General Directorate of Intelligence (GRU) of the General Staff of the Armed Forces playing a central role. The GRU has evolved from traditional espionage and propaganda warfare to viewing cyberspace as a strategic battleground, targeting presidential elections and critical infrastructure.

Symbolic is the intrusion into the Democratic National Committee (DNC) during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Tens of thousands of emails were leaked, exposing internal conflicts that affected the campaign. The GRU's activities were a "hybridization of information warfare," based on the propaganda tactics of the former Soviet Union, but blended with social networking and hacking. The GRU's activities were a "hybridization of information warfare," based on the propaganda tactics of the former Soviet Union and combining social networking and hacking.

As a historical background, U.S.-Russian relations were deteriorating over the Ukraine issue and NATO expansion, and Western countries were once again beginning to regard Russia as a "systemic threat. The cyber-attack that occurred in Estonia in 2007 was a harbinger of this trend, and since then, the Baltic states and Poland have strengthened their surveillance systems. The United States and Europe, led by NATO, established a "Cyber Defense Center" and were forced to incorporate the cyber field into their national security.

This trend has created a situation known as the "Digital Cold War. While nuclear deterrence used to be central to the international order, information and data have become the new axis of deterrence and offense in the 21st century. Western countries strengthened their surveillance networks and repeatedly conducted cyber exercises to prepare for Russian and Chinese attacks. The Russians, on the other hand, positioned cyber attacks as a "cheap, asymmetric force" and actively used them as a means to compensate for their military inferiority.

Thus, the Cold War-style confrontation structure continued in a different form, further undermining trust between nations. Cyberwarfare transcended invisible boundaries and became a symbol of the new Cold War in contemporary international politics, shaking everyday life and the very institutions of democracy.