Next Moves on the Cyber Chessboard

Posted: March 19th, 2017

By Kenneth Geers

Kenneth Geers is a Senior Research Scientist at Comodo, an Ambassador at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn, Estonia, and a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. Geers is also an affiliate at the Digital Society Institute-Berlin and a professor at TSN University of Kyiv. He holds over 20 years of experience within the U.S. government, specifically at the U.S. Army, the National Security Agency, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and NATO. He served as an expert on the Tallinn Manual on the International Law Applicable to Cyber Warfare. Greers is also the author of Strategic Cyber Security and the Editor for both Cyber War in Perspective and The Virtual Battlefield.

Where will Russian President Vladimir Putin strike next? With the 2018 Russian election around the corner, former Soviet states are nervous. Foreign adventures are the quickest way for a politician to get a bump in the polls.

What does this mean for cybersecurity? In the internet era, one thing is for sure: the war has already begun. Generals and admirals today have a dilemma. They must prepare for a wide range of possible wars, and they know that information technology is one key to victory. However, they cannot wait until the first shot is fired to start hacking.

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