From cyber threat to hostile action in cyberspace

In the context of recent cyber-aggressions, we can say that they represent the greatest challenge for the information society. For this reason, a fundamental part of the national security of any modern state is to ensure cyber security. Since a state's cyber space is gaining an increasingly critical value for almost any aspect of modern society, the risks and threats to the National Security will continue to grow as government and private sector institutions continue to develop themselves in the shape of networks; citizens will rely more and more on information society services and use cyber space in daily activities; digital systems will have new technical resources at shorter time spans, while the design, production and provision of information technology services will become more and more accessible. The information and communications systems of a state, as well as the data managed by them, tend to build, as technological progress blurs and even clears borders between complementary domains, a single environment, the „cyberspace.” This evolution of cyber-space causes an unprecedented phenomenon that spreads ideas that influence massive communities of people, determines regional and continental events, changes global strategies and draws new borders, state or influence zones. Thus, nation states and non-state actors have an increasing interest in the role that cyber-space has in forming and sustaining opinions that transcend the borders of a state, in the emergence and propagation of ideologies that change or question the citizen's relationship with fundamental values of the state, such as national identity, state unity, independence or sovereignty.