Is Cybersecurity Affecting International Relations?

History says nations have always been aware of their enemies. In the era where the world is shifting towards digitisation, these outright physical attacks are also moving towards digital wars. In other words, the nations are waging wars with the third world countries; which has started entering the realm of cyber warfare. A survey predicts, one-third of the human population on this globe is accessing an active internet connection, and this number is said to increase to 1.5 billion more by 2020. This has resulted into hacking becoming one of the powerful means to take political and economic advantages over enemy nations. With the increasing number of internet users and Internet of Things innovations, there are more threats of cyber criminals hacking the information.The internet expansion in 1990 lead the hackers to explore the various methodologies to play cyber pranks and explore the cyber crime.

Any idea of how cybersecurity has an impact on international relations? Cyber criminals have targeted famous faces like Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump,and also, the nations and its data security has been a significant concern.Thus, countries have been keen on making Cybersecurity as an integral part of governments national defence. Also, Cybersecurity is built as a new domain of warfare.

The year 2016 gave rise to the cybersecurity turning out to be the pinnacle of politics all around the globe. The reason for this was the Russian government hacking the confidential emails during the US Presidential elections of 2016.Experts within the international relations discipline are focusing on technology implications for national and international security; Also,the increasing level of threats predicts the need for appropriate policy responses that the government and stakeholders should adopt; The experience of cybercrime reveals that cybersecurity will remain the most important agenda in international relations.

Here’s how Cybersecurity is affecting international relations:

• Government Hackers

Many people don’t have a clear idea about hacking. Such people are used to sabotaging the foreign powers by the government. In other words, people who don’t have an idea that hacking is a crime are taught the hacking skills by the government to intrude the foreign security.

The governments around the globe are using hacking to facilitate their surveillance activities. But, few deploy this capability secretly without any knowledge of cyber laws.

One best example of government hackers are; Iranians nuclear program sabotaged by the US government in 2010. The main aim was to prevent them from acquiring nuclear power. But, unfortunately, the virus got detected at an early stage leading to bitter relations between the nations. This paved more attraction towards cybersecurity threats.

• Digital War:

The fear of nuclear weapons paved the way for cold wars in this modern era. This digital transition of the world has led to intruding into the confidential data rather than the physical war. This has resulted in external foreign powers participating in the elections. If Russia becomes a part of this digital war than it would likely spread the misinformation through the internet around the globe; Russia would have mastered the art of hacking the political data which would prove dangerous to the world.

The future is near when hackers will attack the enemy’s security infrastructure using computer code. Cyber-war has increasingly become a dangerous weapon for international conflicts.

• Individuality Attacks:

The main reason for these attacks is interaction with foreign nationals using the internet. Nigerians are very popular in terms of cybercriminals who target individuals through online schemes.

The two popular methods are:

1. Catfishing

Catfishing is a new method where the criminal party creates a fake profile on social media aiming towards fraudulent benefits like extracting cash. Nigerians use the stolen identity to generate a fraud persona among the people. The primary concern is the growing misconception that Nigerians are cyber criminals. Though there are very few, the increased number of people exposed to internet crime make us believe the same.

It has been a common observation that a massive number of people have been a victim of this act. The popular strategy used is stealing someone’s picture and name to start a conversation pretending to be the same person.

2. Fraudulent Checks

Stolen identities tend to be the major component of such fraud.

Here, the victims are offered money in exchange for the product or service. The criminals provide money in the form of a cheque. It is also known as cheque fraud. Before the victim, recognises that he is being cheated the victim’s money is already transferred to the criminal’s bank account.

Conclusion:

The increasing level of cybersecurity issues indicates that significant improvements in international relations won’t be viewed soon in future.With the increase in technology innovations, the cybersecurity has become a vital topic of interest in terms of International relations. With cybersecurity issues becoming more threatening for international relations each day, it will remain at the top of the leader’s agenda around the world.