Cyber security is moving from the arcane purview of a small circle of technologists, within what is a small and specialised national security community, to daily newspaper fare that concerns anyone with a smartphone or a computer.
From a traditional foreign policy perspective, cyber space is a new board for an old game: the jockeying of nations for strategic advantage. Russia and the US were adversaries for 40 years in the 20th century. We may now be in the early years of a second cold war. Thus the Russian government’s efforts to destabilise American domestic politics using cyber espionage and strategic leaking is but the latest round of great power chess. The Obama administration’s response of expelling Russian diplomats and imposing sanctions is just statecraft in the cyber age.
However, hacking — the offensive weapon that requires the defences we call cyber security — does not only take place among nations. Individuals, acting alone or through networks such as Anonymous, political parties, businesses engaged in industrial espionage and criminal ventures can all engage in cyber attacks of various kinds.