We Are At War

The Hacker News notes that rising geopolitical tensions are reflected in cyber operations and politics, with technology increasingly treated as a weapon and a factor in state power. The piece highlights state-led campaigns such as Night Dragon, a China-linked energy and defense campaign from the mid-2000s onward, and Volt Typhoon activities including a 2024 botnet disruption and 2024 advisory on its reach across critical infrastructure.

It also points to broader threat landscapes where state and non-state actors, including hacktivists, operate alongside criminals, with Hacktivist incidents in 2025 affecting UK public services and Norwegian dam infrastructure cited as examples. The article references the Security Navigator 2026, which documents 139,373 incidents and 19,053 confirmed breaches, and notes continued targeting of government and telecommunications sectors, alongside high-tech industries such as semiconductors.

It further outlines a three-point trend: rising victim numbers, familiar techniques that persist, and an evolving, decentralised extortion ecosystem driven by ransomware and associated actors. Overall, it argues that defending against cyber threats requires cross‑sector collaboration and a societal, rather than purely technical, approach, framed by Charl van der Walt’s commentary for Orange Cyberdefense.