The world is at a global cyberwar, countries have declared war to each other, it is total chaos and there is no silver bullet to stop the war. The future, as how I see it, is quite worrying, we are depending on tech, and as technology is bringing us great things it is also allowing us to build things which can bring harm.
There are dozens of examples of cyber weapons that are being used by governments worldwide.
Lets not forget about Hackers Team, the company which got caught selling spying tools to (repressive) regimes, and lets be nice to include FinFisher which was caught to be active in Egypt. It is simple, when it comes to software, everybody can get their hands on it, if they really want, and in this world, government agencies do have the resources to acquire anything which they set their eyes on, as long as it fits into their ‘risk’ coverage.
Countries at war
Now when countries wage war with each other, they have to deploy soldiers, tanks, camps, communication and chains of supply. All of the mentioned points perform better when technology is involved, but if needed, hard work will also get it done, so using cyber weapons alone will not be enough, the cyber attacks are just another layer.
There is something else which needs to be added, most of the cyber attacks will evolve into autonomous cyber attacks, like a game of chess, systems will continue to attack each other until one of them breaks. The system has done the damage or objective, and leaves the target alone, but in this whole attack, there is no layer which states that the damaged code needs to be repaired, the digital hole is there, until someone decides to fix this. Now just image, if this would be the systems and technology around you. They have been breached, and now they are left open.
The rise of a massive state controlled botnet
All of the systems which are left open in a cyberwar can eventually be used for a botnet, and just image if you are that country which manages all of those systems. The amount of power and capability is not something which will be left behind. That botnet can be used for anything, eventually it can be used as a digital radar by using all the sensors present in those devices.
The next step
What do you think that will happen?