The talk of the "Russian trace" in the presidential race in the USA continues. Western special services say that Russian hackers interfered in the course of the elections, but they do not give any evidence. They could be taken for granted, be they gentlemen, but alas. Meanwhile, Russian cyberarmia is not the most financed on the international arena. This is evidenced by a study of the company Zecurion Analytics, which compiled rating of the most powerful cyber-cars in 2017.
The United States, which tops the list of the 10 strongest armies in the world, is the most aggressive nation in the world when it comes to espionage and attacks in cybernetic space. The United States focused its attention on the network war in 2010, when the cybernetic command of the United States Cyber Command combined the capabilities of the air force, navy and marine infantry under the same roof. Billions of dollars were invested in this project. Two years ago, the Pentagon announced a large-scale expansion of its cyber-capabilities, increasing the staff from 1,800 people in 2014 to 6,000 in 2016.Also, the United States is the only country that has ever launched a real cyberwar. This happened during the Obama presidency, when his administration used cyberattacks to destroy thousands of Iranian centrifuges used to enrich nuclear materials. As recognized by the Ministry of Defense, these actions were an illegal act of war.
This is also the way for China, which recently announced that it is unifying its capabilities to fulfill the task set by Secretary General Xi Jinping to transform the People's Liberation Army into a force capable of "fighting and winning in modern wars."
Russia is one of the top 5 most powerful cyberarmies in the world. In 2008, during the conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia, Russian hackers carried out DDOS attacks on Georgian government resources, so successfully that the servers of official Georgian websites had to be moved abroad. And in early 2014 in the US media there were reports that the Cyber Snake virus, which allowed to destroy data and disable Ukrainian networks, was written by Russian specialists.
Another strong player in cyberarene is London. In 2015, the British Center for Government Communications, responsible for electronic reconnaissance, managed to prevent the attack of hackers from Fancy Bears who are believed to be connected with Moscow. Hackers planned to create obstacles to the work of British ministries and television channels.
Top 8 countries with the strongest cyberwars
Officially, specialized units dealing with cyber security issues have several dozen states, and unofficially several hundred. At the same time, no country has officially admitted that it is precisely behind this or that action in the information war in Europe or the US, whether it is an attack on the computer networks of the OSCE or interference in the struggle between Clinton and Trump.
High-tech espionage is widespread among countries in Europe and Asia and serves not only for state benefits, but also for commercial and criminal gain. The average cost of attack varies depending on the country, but it is high - more than 15 million dollars in the US and 6 million dollars in the United Kingdom, according to the World Economic Forum.
In addition to the countries that occupy the first 8 places on the Zecurion Analytics list, Iran has a strong cyberarmia. In 2012, Iranian hackers struck Saudi Arabia's national oil company, Saudi Aramco, almost destroying its corporate IT infrastructure, resulting in the company's hard times.