question: What's happening when two countries "launch cyberattacks" on one another?
comment: Kinda depends on the context. The cyber attacks can cover a large variety of things. For example the most notable one I've read about recently is where the [US is claiming they are implanting malware into Russian power grid.]( URL_2 ) (sorry for that link being Daily beast, I didn't want to give you the NYT link because of the pay wall) Basically what this would try to accomplish is being able to shut off the electricity to a large portion of Russia with the click of a button. So more or less the US would be able to disrupt a large portion of daily life in Russia with the click of a button and no life lost in the US, but a massive problem for Russia to deal with. There are also reports that [Russia did this to western Ukraine.]( URL_0 ) (again sorry for where the article is, but I don't like to link pay wall sites) Or there is the time that hackers locked out the [National Health Service in Brittain]( URL_1 ) by using ransomware to keep the files locked down. Basically they use the internet to engage in something that would disrupt life or damage part of what people use without sending in troops. Often times it could be considered an act of war without putting boots on the ground. The most extreme example I could think of is if a foreign country tries to gain access to nuclear missiles from another country.
passages: Section::::China, United States and others.:United Arab Emirates.
  
  In 2019, Reuters reported that United Arab Emirates launched a series of cyberattacks on its political opponents, journalists, and human rights activists under Project Raven, on an espionage platform namely Karma. The team included ex-US intelligence agents. Project Raven commenced in 2009 and was planned to be continued for the coming ten years.
  
  Section::::Consequence of a potential attack.
  
  A whole industry is working trying to minimize the likelihood and the consequence of an information attack.
  
  For a partial list see: .
  
  They offer different products and services, aimed at:
   BULLET::::- 2007 cyberattacks on Estonia, wide-ranging attack targeting government and commercial institutions
  
  BULLET::::- 2010 cyberattacks on Burma, related to the 2010 Myanmar general election
  
  BULLET::::- 2010 Japan–South Korea cyberwarfare
  
  BULLET::::- 2013 Singapore cyberattacks, attack by Anonymous "in response to web censorship regulations in the country, specifically on news outlets"
  
  BULLET::::- #OpIsrael, a broad "anti-Israel" attack
  
  BULLET::::- Cyberattacks during the Russo-Georgian War
  
  BULLET::::- July 2009 cyberattacks, against South Korea and the United States
  
  BULLET::::- Operation Olympic Games, against Iranian nuclear facilities, allegedly conducted by the United States
   Section::::Infrastructures as targets.:Energy.
   Section::::Types of threat.:Sabotage.:Electrical power grid.
   A series of powerful cyber attacks began 27 June 2017 that swamped websites of Ukrainian organizations, including banks, ministries, newspapers and electricity firms.
  
  Section::::China, United States and others.:Russia.
  
  During FIFA world cup 2018, Russia countered and stopped around 25 million cyber attacks on IT Infrastructure.
  
  In June 2019, Russia has conceded that it is "possible" its electrical grid is under cyberattack by the United States. The "New York Times" reported that American hackers from the United States Cyber Command planted malware potentially capable of disrupting the Russian electrical grid.
  
  Section::::China, United States and others.:Estonia.
   BULLET::::- In September 2018, the United States Justice Department published a criminal complaint against Park Jin Hyok, a professional hacker alleged to be working for North Korea's military intelligence bureau, for his commitment of three cyber-attacks: attack against Sony Pictures in 2014, the theft of $81m from the central bank of Bangladesh in 2016, and WannaCry 2.0 ransomware attack against hundreds of thousands of computers.
  
  BULLET::::- Beginning at least by March 2019, persistent cyber operations were applied against Russia's power grid, seemingly per National Security Presidential Memorandum 13 (September 2018).
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- Air Force Cyber Command (Provisional)
   On both ends of the spectrum, East and West nations show a "sword and shield" contrast in ideals. The Chinese have a more offensive minded idea for cyberwarfare, trying to get the pre-emptive strike in the early stages of conflict to gain the upper-hand. In the U.S. there are more reactionary measures being taken at creating systems with impenetrable barriers to protect the nation and its civilians from cyber-attacks.
   Section::::By region.:Europe.:Netherlands.
  
  In the Netherlands, Cyber Defense is nationally coordinated by the (NCSC). The Dutch Ministry of Defense laid out a cyber strategy in 2011. The first focus is to improve the cyber defense handled by the Joint IT branch (JIVC). To improve intel operations the intel community in the Netherlands (including the military intel organization MIVD) has set up the Joint Sigint Cyber Unit (JSCU). The ministry of Defense is furthermore setting up an offensive cyber force, called Defensie Cyber Command (DCC), which will be operational in the end of 2014.
  
  Section::::By region.:Europe.:Sweden.
   Section::::Infrastructures as targets.:Transportation.
   2019 cyberattacks on Sri Lanka were a series of powerful cyberattacks on at least 10 Sri Lankan domestic websites with the public domains of .lk and .com. The cyber attack speculated to have been conducted on 18 and 19 May 2019, the day following the Vesak festival and amid the persistent temporary social media ban in the country. The website of the Kuwaiti Embassy operating in Sri Lanka was also affected by the cyber attacks. The investigations are currently carried out by Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team along with Sri Lanka Signals Corps. However this was controlled within hours following the spread of attacks. 
   The United States has used cyberattacks for tactical advantage in Afghanistan.
  
  In 2014 Barack Obama ordered an intensification of cyberwarfare against North Korea's missile program for sabotaging test launches in their opening seconds. In 2016 President Barack Obama authorized the planting of cyber weapons in Russian infrastructure in the final weeks of his presidency in response to Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election.
   Section::::Infrastructures as targets.:Finance.
   Within the realm of cyberspace, there are two primary weapons: network-centric warfare and C4ISR, which denotes integrated Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance. Furthermore, cyberspace attacks initiated by one nation against another nation have an underlying goal of gaining information superiority over the attacked party, which includes disrupting or denying the victimized party's ability to gather and distribute information. A real-world occurrence that illustrated the dangerous potential of cyberattacks transpired in 2007, when a strike from Israeli forces demolished an alleged nuclear reactor in Syria that was being constructed via a collaborative effort between Syria and North Korea. Accompanied with the strike was a cyberattack on Syria's air defenses, which left them blind to the attack on the nuclear reactor and, ultimately allowed for the attack to occur (New York Times 2014). An example of a more basic attack on a nation within cyberspace is a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack, which is utilized to hinder networks or websites until they lose their primary functionality. As implied, cyberattacks do not just affect the military party being attacked, but rather the whole population of the victimized nation. Since more aspects of daily life are being integrated into networks in cyberspace, civilian populations can potentially be negatively affected during wartime. For example, if a nation chose to attack another nation's power grid servers in a specific area to disrupt communications, civilians and businesses in that area would also have to deal with power outages, which could potentially lead to economic disruptions as well.
   On the global level, both governments and non-state actors continue to grow in importance, with the ability to engage in such activities as espionage, and other cross-border attacks sometimes referred to as cyber warfare. The international legal system is attempting to hold actors accountable for their actions, with the International Criminal Court among the few addressing this threat.
   In December 2018, Twitter warned of "unusual activity" from China and Saudi Arabia. A bug was detected in November that could have revealed the country code of users' phone numbers. Twitter said the bug could have had ties to "state-sponsored actors".
  
  Section::::In fiction.
   BULLET::::- Salim Sultan Al Ruzaiqi, Chief Executive Officer, Information Technology Authority (ITA), Oman
  
  BULLET::::- Tim Unwin, Chief Executive Officer, Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation
  
  BULLET::::- Tim Archdeacon, President & Chief Executive Officer, ABI Research
  
  BULLET::::- Abdou Diouf, Secretary-General, International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF)
  
  BULLET::::- Angela Sinaswee-Gervais, Permanent Secretary, Trinidad & Tobago
   The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) notes that the cyberspace has emerged as a national-level concern through several recent events of geostrategic significance. Among those are included, the attack on Estonia's infrastructure in 2007, allegedly by Russian hackers. "In August 2008, Russia again allegedly conducted cyber attacks, this time in a coordinated and synchronized kinetic and non-kinetic campaign against the country of Georgia. The December 2015 Ukraine power grid cyberattack has also been attributed to Russia and is considered the first successful cyber attack on a power grid. Fearing that such attacks may become the norm in future warfare among nation-states, the concept of cyberspace operations impacts and will be adapted by warfighting military commanders in the future.
   In January 2012, Mike McConnell, the former director of national intelligence at the National Security Agency under president George W. Bush told the Reuters news agency that the U.S. has already launched attacks on computer networks in other countries. McConnell did not name the country that the U.S. attacked but according to other sources it may have been Iran. In June 2012 "the New York Times" reported that president Obama had ordered the cyber attack on Iranian nuclear enrichment facilities.
   According to the media, Pakistan's has been working on effective cyber security system, in a program called the "Cyber Secure Pakistan" (CSP). The program was launched in April 2013 by Pakistan Information Security Association and the program has expanded to country's universities.
  
  Section::::China, United States and others.
   On 20 March 2013, three South Korean television stations and a bank suffered from frozen computer terminals in a suspected act of cyberwarfare. ATMs and mobile payments were also affected. The South Korean communications watchdog raised their alert level on cyber-attacks to three on a scale of five. North Korea has been blamed for similar attacks in 2009 and 2011 and was suspected of launching this attack as well. South Korean officials linked the incident to a Chinese IP address, which increased suspicion of North Korea as "[i]ntelligence experts believe that North Korea routinely uses Chinese computer addresses to hide its cyber-attacks." 
   Section::::Infrastructures as targets.:Water.
   Section::::By region.:Europe.:France.
  
  In 2013, the French Minister of Defense, Mr Jean-Yves Le Drian, ordered the creation of a cyberarmy, representing its 4th national army corp (along with ground, naval and air forces) under the French Ministry of Defense, to protect French and European interests on its soil and abroad. A contract was made with French firm EADS (Airbus) to identify and secure its main elements susceptible to cyber threats. 
   Section::::Infrastructures as targets.:Control systems.
   Computer network attacks are, like weapons of mass destructions, asymmetric in nature. Since infrastructure such as power grids, transportation, and telecommunications are interlinked, an attack on one site might have a catastrophic domino effect. The destructive capabilities of cyber-attacks have been compared to the effects of nuclear radiation and the EMP effect of nuclear blasts. Small countries wanting to have an impact can take advantage of how cheap it is to launch a CNA. Nuclear weapons have also not been outlawed, but along other weapons of warfare, there is a need to be very careful about using or threatening to use these weapons and follow rules of proportionality, necessity, and humanity. Both nuclear weapons and information weapons do not distinguish between civilians and non-civilians.
   The 2007 cyberattacks on Estonia were a series of cyberattacks which began on 27 April 2007 and targeted websites of Estonian organizations, including Estonian parliament, banks, ministries, newspapers and broadcasters, amid the country's disagreement with Russia about the relocation of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn, an elaborate Soviet-era grave marker, as well as war graves in Tallinn. The attacks triggered a number of military organizations around the world to reconsider the importance of network security to modern military doctrine. The direct result of the cyberattacks was the creation of the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn.
  