This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race

by Nicole Perlroth

It is now arguably easier for a rogue actor or nation-state to sabotage the software embedded in the Boeing 737 Max than it is for terrorists to hijack planes and send them careening into buildings. Threats that were only hypotheticals a decade ago are now very real. Russia proved it can turn off power in the dead of winter. The same Russian hackers who switched off the safety locks at the Saudi petrochemical plant are now doing “digital drive-bys” of American targets. A rudimentary phishing attack arguably changed the course of an American presidential election. We’ve seen patients turned away from hospitals because of a North Korean cyberattack. We’ve caught Iranian hackers rifling through our dams. Our hospitals, towns, cities, and, more recently, our gas pipelines have been held hostage with ransomware. We have caught foreign allies repeatedly using cyber means to spy on and harass innocent civilians, including Americans. And over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, the usual suspects, like China and Iran, and newer players, like Vietnam and South Korea, are targeting the institutions leading our response.