I have spoken often here about how the world is shifting under our feet. In the post WWII reality we have all grown up in soft power projection, this is not a term many have heard or even understand but we should.


Following WWII a series of treaties were signed and the UN was created. Without boring you with a lengthy history lesson it is safe to say that two super powers emerged ( the United States and the Soviet Union) and there was a new impetus on non combative influence around the world.Both super powers quickly adapted their foreign policy to this new status quo and began developing and deploying soft power influence packages all over the world. Think humanitarian aid, radio broadcast, technology transfer, investment from national companies, industrialization efforts, mineral and fossil fuel deals...the list goes on and on.

For many decades these incredibly complex strategic decisions by both the US and (now) Russia have created positive and negative side effects for local populations and the world as a whole. However, starting as early as the 1980's a new chess board (or more appropriately, battlefield) emerged....Cyberspace, and the game changed forever.

For decades influence and soft-power projection meant sending supplies and aid workers after natural disasters, buying off local politicians or news organizations, or spreading propaganda via print media or TV/Radio. It was labor intensive, costly (think USAID $50 billion budget...yes that's what it is for) and difficult to predict ROI. Today however, a project can target Facebook users in a region, X accounts in a country or shipping and logistics operations in support of an adversary......

....and now we have arrived at todays story. The Netherlands have been staunch supporters of Ukraine since the war began and a group strongly suspected of being tied to the Russian government (which means they are) has been targeting official organizations inside of the Netherlands hoping to gain intel on military equipment and logistics. They (Russian sponsored cyber gang) succeeded in hacking the Dutch Police last year (just reported findings) and did exfiltrate information relating to officers and staff which shocked the force.

This is soft power projection in the modern era. This type of interference will become more prevalent and even common place in our lifetime. It already has we are just blissfully unaware at this point. Cell phones stop working for hours or days on end, large scale internet outages during critical events (think election night, not just here but abroad) shipping delays caused by "computer issues", flight cancelations, hotel systems crashing nationwide....these are all cyber attacks within the last year and it still isn't obvious to many what our new reality is.

This is the new cold war. We are living in it.

#HardentheTarget #StayVigilant

I have spoken often here about how the world is shifting under our feet...