The head of the largest anti-virus companies in the world, Eugene Kaspersky, explained that although cyber weapons may be “cleaner” than traditional weapons, they might be much more dangerous. Media reports cited Kaspersky words from the DLD 2013 conference, where he warned that humanity is not ready to deal with the dangers and is still very vulnerable. He believes that it’s just a matter of time before a serious incident happens.

At the moment, there are a number of certain digital technologies that should be walked away from due to their danger. Although people could walk away from the Zeppelin and the Concorde, they fail to consider dangers of digital tech. Security expert explained that it might be difficult to do so or to limit the function of digital technology. The matter is that consuming IT is like oxygen or water consumption, which can’t exactly be stopped. The representatives of the anti-virus companies admit that the next major military engagement might involve a serious cyber element, and although the battle will not be completely on the Internet, it will remain a major aspect of the war. The experts point out that the danger of cyber warfare is that it can be started and denied it ever happened.

In the meanwhile, what sets cyber weapons apart from traditional ones is their accessibility. The matter is that anyone can get their hands on those weapons, which they can’t do with a nuclear bomb, missiles or tanks, if they are not in the army. However, the security experts don’t regard spying as an act of cyber-warfare – they believe that cyber warfare isn’t really happening until critical infrastructure is targeted. You can recall Stuxnet case, when the virus infected a Siemens PLC device in the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility in Iran.