Understanding Hybrid Warfare

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

The concept of war is as old as us humans, by definition it means a large group of people engaging in armed conflict which could be for a number of different reasons mainly being to Conquer land, reclaiming conquered land or to cause a Revolution against tyrannical leaders. As humans have progressed in science and technology through the ages, so have the strategies and tactics involved in war. It has evolved to be the complete opposite of how some would think of it 50 years back.

War now is more silent, with less boots on the ground and more passive than ever before. According to an unpopular opinion, “In this technologically advanced age, we are always in a constant state of war”. At the first glance this statement might seem a bit absurd, but if you ponder upon it for a moment, it turns out to be quite true. Hybrid warfare is a combination of using different tactics be it phyiscal or virtual to slowly attack the enemy at all fronts without them even realizing. Weakening the enemy from within and causing misinformation among them is not a new concept in wars by blending in spies across the line, which nowadays has been made much more easier and effective with the evergrowing popularity and excess usage of social media platforms.

A misinformed youth is the most lethal weapon of the enemy. Unfortunately young men and women these days are just putting out sensitive information in the form of pictures, videos, location and contacts at a rate which is higher than ever, although the intention is to share their good moments with the loved ones, but according to a research most people do not know how sensitive could it be if all that data goes into the wrong hands.

Another face of Hybrid warfare is cyber warfare, which involves cyber criminals finding vulnerbilities in a system and manipulating them according to their own interest. Cyber attacks are not a uncommon phnomenon infact 68% of business leaders feel that cyber attacks are increasing by every passing day. and as a result according to a prediction the worldwide spending on cybersecurity will reach an average total of $133.7 billion by 2022. As most of the high end machinery used to supply resources like power, water and gas to a country are automated, hackers can cause great damage if they manage to penetrate the security. A number of attacks on the power grid of different countries across the years is a proof of how dangerous it could be. Although still in its infancy but with the dawn of powerful technologies like AI (Artifical Intelligence) and IoT(Internet of Things), stronger security measures have become a must have for every corporation and indivisual.

As a responsible citizen and a patriot it is your duty to THINK BEFORE YOU REACT! on a call to action, look into the authencity of a source of information and put in some effort to verify any kind of news you see or hear on social media or any medium in general from few other sources to verify their credibility, take the time to go through the privacy and security settings of your social media applications and review WHO CAN SEE WHAT, and refrain from being used by someone trying to cause harm to you or your country.There are and always have been “Imposters among us” and its our job to call them out.