CYBER SECURITY THREATS

In recent years, cybersecurity threats have evolved beyond mere technical problems into global crises that threaten the sovereignty of states, their infrastructures, and even international peace. The Stuxnet virus, which emerged in 2010 and targeted Iran's Natanz nuclear facilities, is considered history's first cyber weapon and demonstrated to the world that state-sponsored attacks can physically damage infrastructure. In 2014, North Korea targeted freedom of expression with a cyberattack on Sony Pictures due to the film "The Interview," demonstrating that the private sector can also be a target of war. In 2015, the Sandworm group, believed to be backed by Russia, destroyed Ukraine's electrical infrastructure; this attack showed that the cyber dimension of wars is not merely theoretical. With the WannaCry attack linked to North Korea in 2017, hundreds of thousands of devices in more than 150 countries were locked, and the UK National Health System was paralyzed. The SolarWinds attack that targeted US public institutions in 2020 bore the traces of the Russian state-sponsored group called APT29 (Cozy Bear) and drew attention with its sophisticated espionage attempt. With Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, digital infrastructure attacks became intertwined with conventional warfare; cyberattacks targeted every area, from transportation to media, and from military systems to civilian networks. In 2023, the Russia-based CL0P group exploited the vulnerability in MOVEit software to infiltrate the confidential data of banks, public institutions and educational institutions in many countries. All these developments show that cybersecurity is far from being a “technical issue” anymore; It clearly reveals that cyberspace has become the front line of states' war, espionage and threat policies and that binding rules to regulate this area are largely lacking in international law. 

 https://www.wired.com/2014/11/countdown-to-zero-day-stuxnet/

https://www.wired.com/2016/03/inside-cunning-unprecedented-hack-ukraines-power-grid/ 

Guidance on the North Korean Cyber Threat | CISA

https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/news/summary-solarwinds-cyberattack

https://www.reuters.com/technology/moveit-hack-hits-us-government-agencies-state-department-among-those-targeted-2023-06-15/