The world was stunned when Russia launched an old school ground invasion of Ukraine. But how about the great cyberwar we had been warned of? Ukrainian institutions and companies have been hacked, but none of the major attacks are taking out power grids and telecom networks – at least not yet. With the Russian military using Ukrainian mobile networks on the battlefield, some wonder if the West overestimated Moscow's tech savviness.
Wait for it, warns the US president. Joe Biden tells business leaders they had better shore up their defenses. Most vulnerable are corporations and in particular the international banking system. Could cyberspace be where World War III starts? Or did it start virtually long ago?
George Orwell would have had plenty to say on all the disinformation campaigns that have swept the globe in the past two decades. Even today, Vladimir Putin's invasion of a sovereign state is craftily sold at home and he's already honing his message abroad, working inward from the fringes of social media. How battle ready is the West on this one?
Produced by Charles Wente, Juliette Laurain and Léopoldine Iribarren.
