Hybrid Warfare Is not Synonymous with Cyber: The Threat of Influence Operations
The recent cyber-attack on Ukraine’s governmental websites, widely attributed to Russia, has reinforced the widely held perception equating Hybrid Warfare with hostile cyber activities. This overlooks the broader and devastating impact that hostile influence operations can have on the economic and defence spheres. These operations are strategically more insidious and destructive. Unlike cyber operations, influence operations can run over a long period of time. Whereas the EU is reasonably well-equipped to deal with hostile cyber operations, awareness of and countermeasures against influence operations are surprisingly weak both at member state as well as at EU level.