Cyberwarfare in the context of Sabotage

The Digital and Intelligence Service (DIS) is the digital service branch of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) responsible for providing military intelligence to the armed forces, building up the country's digital defence capabilities, and protecting the psychological defence of its military personnel. It was established on 28 October 2022, in response to the increased number of attacks by non-state actors, and the resulting damage from the Russo-Ukrainian cyberwarfare.

Cyberwarfare is a component of the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine since the Revolution of Dignity in 2013–2014. While the first attacks on information systems of private enterprises and state institutions of Ukraine were recorded during mass protests in 2013, Russian cyberweapon Uroburos had been around since 2005. Russian cyberwarfare continued with the 2015 Ukraine power grid hack at Christmas 2015 and again in 2016, paralysis of the State Treasury of Ukraine in December 2016, a Mass hacker supply-chain attack in June 2017 and attacks on Ukrainian government websites in January 2022.

Battlespace or battle-space is a term used to signify a military theatre of operations, in which multiple domains are contested at the same time. Domains where military competition take place include the air, land, sea, outer space, cyberspace and the information environment. The battlespace concept integrates the environment (to include weather and terrain), timeframe and other factors that must be understood to successfully apply combat power, protect the force, or complete the mission. Other relevant factors include enemy and friendly armed forces, the civilian population, infrastructure, socio-political factors and the electromagnetic spectrum within the operational areas and areas of interest.

The Japan Air Self-Defense Force (Japanese: 航空自衛隊, Hepburn: Kōkū Jieitai), JASDF (空自, Kūji), also referred to as the Japanese Air Force, is the air and space branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, responsible for the defense of Japanese airspace, other air and space operations, cyberwarfare and electronic warfare. The JASDF carries out combat air patrols around Japan, while also maintaining a network of ground and air early-warning radar systems. The branch also has an aerobatic team known as Blue Impulse and has provided air transport in UN peacekeeping missions.

The JASDF had an estimated 49,913 personnel as of 2018, and as of 2023 operates about 712 aircraft, approximately 321 of them being fighter aircraft.

Operation Olympic Games was an unacknowledged campaign of sabotage by means of cyber disruption, directed at Iranian nuclear facilities by the United States and Israel. As reported, it is one of the first known uses of offensive cyber weapons. Started under the administration of George W. Bush in 2006, Olympic Games was accelerated under President Obama, who heeded Bush's advice to continue cyber attacks on the Iranian nuclear facility at Natanz. Bush believed that the strategy was the only way to prevent an Israeli conventional strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. The operation produced a sophisticated computer virus known as Stuxnet, which was designed to disrupt Iran’s uranium enrichment efforts.

Cyberwarfare by Russia comprises denial-of-service campaigns, hacking operations, disinformation programs, and state-directed online repression, including participation of state-sponsored teams in political blogs, internet surveillance using SORM technology, and other active measures, executed by Russian security and intelligence agencies since the 1990s to advance Kremlin geopolitical objectives.

Russian doctrine frames these operations within an informatsionnoye protivoborstvo (IPb), or information confrontation, approach that fuses technical network actions with psychological measures. Units of the GRU, FSB, and SVR oversee hacker collectives such as APT28, APT29, Sandworm, Turla, and Star Blizzard that target governments, infrastructure, and civil society across Europe, North America, and Asia.

Information warfare (IW) is the battlespace use and management of information and communication technology (ICT) in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent. It is different from cyberwarfare that attacks computers, software, and command control systems. Information warfare is the manipulation of information trusted by a target without the target's awareness so that the target will make decisions against their interest but in the interest of the one conducting information warfare. As a result, it is not clear when information warfare begins, ends, and how strong or destructive it is.

Information warfare may involve the collection of tactical information, assurance(s) that one's information is valid, spreading of propaganda or disinformation to demoralize or manipulate the enemy and the public, undermining the quality of the opposing force's information, and denial of information-collection opportunities to opposing forces. Information warfare is closely linked to psychological warfare.

Shamoon (Persian: شمعون), also known as W32.DistTrack, is a modular computer virus that was discovered in 2012, targeting then-recent 32-bit NT kernel versions of Microsoft Windows. The virus was notable due to the destructive nature of the attack and the cost of recovery. Shamoon can spread from an infected machine to other computers on the network. Once a system is infected, the virus continues to compile a list of files from specific locations on the system, upload them to the attacker, and erase them. Finally the virus overwrites the master boot record of the infected computer, making it unusable.

The virus was used for cyberwarfare against national oil companies including Saudi Arabia's Saudi Aramco and Qatar's RasGas. A group named "Cutting Sword of Justice" claimed responsibility for an attack on 30,000 Saudi Aramco workstations, causing the company to spend more than a week restoring their services. The group later indicated that the Shamoon virus had been used in the attack. Computer systems at RasGas were also knocked offline by an unidentified computer virus, with some security experts attributing the damage to Shamoon. It was later described as the "biggest hack in history".

The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), formerly the Defence Signals Directorate, is a statutory agency of the Government of Australia responsible for signals intelligence, providing intelligence support to Australian military operations, conducting cyberwarfare and ensuring information security. The ASD is a part of the larger Australian Intelligence Community, and its role within the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance is to monitor signals intelligence in South and East Asia. The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) is an agency within the ASD.

The unit was established in 1947 by executive order as the Defence Signals Bureau within the Department of Defence, and underwent several name changes until its current name ASD was adopted in 2013. ASD was converted to a statutory body by the Intelligence Services Act 2001. ASD is based in Canberra, at the Defence Department Headquarters at Russell Offices. As of February 2020, Rachel Noble is the Director-General of ASD, replacing Mike Burgess, who was appointed Director-General of Security in September 2019.

Unit 8200 (Hebrew: יחידה 8200, romanized: Yehida shmone matayim, lit. 'Unit eight two-hundred') is an Israeli Intelligence Corps unit of the Israel Defense Forces responsible for clandestine operation, collecting signal intelligence (SIGINT) and code decryption, counterintelligence, cyberwarfare, military intelligence, and surveillance. Military publications include references to Unit 8200 as the Central Collection Unit of the Intelligence Corps, and it is sometimes referred to as Israeli SIGINT National Unit (ISNU). It is subordinate to Aman, the military intelligence directorate. Unit 8200 is considered the Israeli equivalent of the United States' National Security Agency (NSA).

The unit is composed primarily of 18–21 year olds. As a result of the youth of the soldiers in the unit, and the shortness of their service period, the unit relies on selecting recruits with the ability for rapid adaptation and speedy learning. Afterschool programs for 16–18 year olds, teaching computer coding and hacking skills, also serve as feeder programs for the unit. Former Unit 8200 soldiers have gone on to found and occupy top positions in many international IT companies, including in Silicon Valley.

The Russian information war against Ukraine was articulated by the Russian government as part of the Gerasimov doctrine. They believed that Western governments were instigating color revolutions in former Soviet states which posed a threat to Russia.

The concept of informatsionnaya voyna (Russian: информационная война, lit. 'informational war') encompasses various strategies, including cyberwarfare, often described as technical defenses against technical attacks in warfare. However, cyberwarfare is just one aspect of Russia's information war, which may include controlling undersea communications cables, shaping national narratives, manipulating the news cycle, and flooding the information space with Russian bots and trolls. The goal is to achieve strategic victory and exert reflexive control. These efforts were used as part of its disinformation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The United States Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is the primary investigative law enforcement agency of the United States Department of the Navy. Its primary function is to investigate major criminal activities involving the Navy and Marine Corps. However, its broad mandate includes national security, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, cyberwarfare, and the protection of U.S. naval assets worldwide. NCIS is the successor organization to the former Naval Investigative Service (NIS), which was established by the Office of Naval Intelligence after World War II. One-half of NCIS personnel are civilian, with the other half being US government investigators — 1811 series special agents. NCIS agents are armed federal law enforcement investigators, who frequently coordinate with other U.S. government agencies and have a presence in more than 41 countries and on U.S. Navy vessels. NCIS special agents are supported by analysts and other experts skilled in disciplines such as forensics, surveillance, surveillance countermeasures, computer investigations, physical security, and polygraph examinations.