Hacking Is the New Cold War

Hackers have come to dominate global statecraft, and barely anyone is paying attention

Ben Buchanan
OneZero
Published in
7 min readFeb 25, 2020

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Shadowy hands write on a computer keyboard, symbolizing hackers and data security.
Photo: Thomas Trutschel/Photothek/Getty Images

“HOW MUCH YOU PAY FOR ENEMIES CYBER WEAPONS?”

The question was posed online with no preamble and in broken English. It sounded like a prank, a thought experiment, or an internet troll shouting into the digital ether. It was none of these things.

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Ben Buchanan
OneZero
Writer for

Ben Buchanan is a professor at Georgetown University and is the author of two books on cybersecurity, including The Hacker and the State.