Ethical Hacking News
A growing trend in modern warfare involves the use of cyber targeting by hostile countries to plan physical military strikes. Amazon's Chief Security Officer, Steve Schmidt, reveals that this new operational model is blurring the lines between cyber and conventional warfare. This article explores the implications of this trend and what it means for companies and organizations looking to protect themselves against these emerging threats.
Cyber and conventional warfare have blurred, with nations using cyber operations to scope out targets before launching physical military strikes.Cyber operations are now directly informing kinetic decision-making, making companies and organizations more vulnerable to attack.Nation-state actors, such as Iran and Russia, are sharing intelligence on targeting options and leveraging digital reconnaissance for physical attacks.The trend requires a fundamentally different approach to security and risk management, recognizing the interconnectedness of physical and digital domains.Organizations must now consider how their systems might be leveraged by hostile actors, not just for direct exploitation but also as intelligence tools and broader operations.
In an era where technology has become increasingly intertwined with modern warfare, a new and complex landscape has emerged. The lines between cyber and conventional warfare have blurred, as nations begin to use cyber operations to scope out targets before launching physical military strikes. This trend has been highlighted by Amazon's Chief Security Officer, Steve Schmidt, who has revealed that hostile countries are utilizing cyber targeting for this purpose.
According to Schmidt, this new operational model is neither traditional cyber attack nor conventional warfare. Instead, it represents a fusion of both, where the data collected through cyber operations directly informs kinetic decision-making. This means that companies and organizations that were previously seen as unlikely targets for nation-state actors are now being targeted simply because they possess valuable intelligence, such as surveillance cameras or industrial control systems.
The example of Iran's government-backed cyber threat groups, Imperial Kitten and MuddyWater, is particularly striking. These groups used digital reconnaissance to prepare for physical attacks, exploiting vulnerabilities in maritime vessels' Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) platforms and breaking into CCTV cameras aboard ships to gather real-time visual intelligence. In one instance, the IRGC's cyber arm began conducting targeted searches for AIS location data for a specific shipping vessel, only to see a missile strike by Houthi forces against that ship just hours later.
Schmidt highlights the growing relationship between Iran and Russia in sharing intelligence on targeting options, citing instances where Iranian hacking crews were "on high alert" following an Israeli attack. Meanwhile, China has been observed pre-positioning for access to critical infrastructure while combining intelligence gathering with physical world attacks.
The implications of this trend are far-reaching, as organizations must now consider how their systems might be leveraged by hostile actors, not just for direct exploitation but also as intelligence tools and broader operations. This requires a fundamentally different approach to security and risk management, one that recognizes the interconnectedness of physical and digital domains.
As we navigate this complex new landscape, it is essential to understand the role of cyber operations in modern warfare and the ways in which nations are leveraging these tools to achieve their objectives. By doing so, we can better prepare ourselves for the challenges ahead and develop effective strategies to counter these emerging threats.
Related Information:
https://www.ethicalhackingnews.com/articles/Cyber-Warfare-Enters-a-New-Era-How-Nations-Use-Cyber-Targeting-to-Plan-Physical-Military-Strikes-ehn.shtml
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/11/19/amazon_cso_warfare_cyber_kinetic/
Published: Wed Nov 19 13:16:48 2025 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
