HYDERABAD: A cyber war is not capable of triggering a traditional war nor has the ability to replace it in near future, director of Digital and Cyberspace Policy at the Council on Foreign Relation (CFR) Adam Segal has said.
Addressing the media at American Corner in St Francis College for Women here on Monday, Segal said, “People asking whether a cyber war can replace or trigger a traditional war has become quite common now. If a country’s website is hacked by an individual or through the state sponsored attack, chances are that the affected state will take revenge by attacking their websites. Most of the time, countries ignore this kind of things and would not start a traditional war.
“Besides, we are not going to see cyber wars replacing an armed conflict any time soon for the simple reason that most cyber attacks can be made only once. By the time if the attacker wants to do it again, the rival country would have found out a solution for it. So cyber wars are not a viable option.”
Segal, who is also the Maurice R Greenberg senior fellow for China studies, said cyber attacks from China was not a major threat to the United States. “It is true that China has many hackers but they are not that equipped to cause major damage. But hackers from Russia are smart and can cause some serious threat.”
On the cyber security agreement between the US and China, he said, “China needs to distinguish between cyber espionage directed at military and political secrets and cyber-enabled theft of business plans and intellectual property. Both are not the same and it is time they realised this.”
About US’ spying on other countries, he said, “There are two kinds of spying _ good and bad. There is a very thin line between the two and other countries will have no reason to believe it. Instead of asking whether they can or cannot do spying on other countries or within the country, they should decide on whom they want do it. Is there a necessity for doing it?”