The Next War Won’t Be Declared… It’ll Be Calculated

The podcast episode examines how modern conflicts are shifting from declared wars to calculated cyber operations, where digital attacks replace traditional battles. Drawing on recent statistics and historical examples, it argues that cyber warfare's speed, scale, and stealth demand new defensive strategies, international norms, and rapid adaptation by organizations and nations.

Surge in Cyber Threats

Cyber attacks have escalated dramatically in 2025, outpacing previous years. In the first half of the year, credential theft rose 800%, with 18 billion credentials stolen from nearly six million compromised hosts. Ransomware incidents nearly tripled, reflecting greater sophistication among attackers. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks hit a peak of 31.4 terabits per second (Tbps), a 726% increase from the prior record, yet lasted only 35 seconds—demonstrating their brief but devastating intensity. These figures illustrate a cyber environment where disruptions occur at unprecedented scale and velocity.

Rise of AI-Enhanced Attacks