What IT attacks are really threatening in the wake of the Ukraine war? Why does political scientist Lennart Maschmeyer think little of the terms "cyber weapons" and "cyber war"? And why does cyber security expert Sven Herpig advise broad-based, civilian cyber security instead of centralised or even military cyber defence? These questions - and many more on the current IT security situation - are addressed in a balanced article on heise.de, which we at //next would like to share with you.
In view of the war in Europe, the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) warns of an increased risk situation. The data protection commissioner of Rhineland-Palatinate, Kugelmann, is more specific and mentions targeted hacker attacks from Russia as a threat. Meanwhile, criminals are trying to exploit the conflict and cheat users out of their money with emails about sanctions or investment fraud.
But such predictions of massive cyber attacks have not yet been confirmed, the tech portal heise.de draws an interim conclusion. And asks:
To answer this question, heise editors interviewed two experts. We at //next found this article particularly revealing,
* how political scientist Lennart Maschmeyer argues that "cyberweapons" in the literal sense do not actually exist - and that the term "cyberwar" is therefore out of place. And
* how Sven Herpig, head of international cyber security policy at the Stiftung Neue Verantwortung (SNV), concludes that centralised cyber defence does not really protect. And why a broad, civilian cyber security makes much more sense for the protection of our systems: "We have to improve subsidiarity."
Text: Ingo Schenk
Curious as well? You can find the balanced article here (in German):
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