The cyber arms race is accelerating – what are the consequences?

Nation-states are in the midst of an accelerating cyber arms race. This development has several political and strategic implications that pose the need to find specifically political answers. What is often forgotten or neglected is the increasing importance of understanding cyberspace as a political domain and cyberpolitics is needed more than ever before. The current developments in cybersecurity and cyberwarfare certainly have a number of implications but the aim of this article is to explore five consequences which are critical when evaluating both political and military aspects of cyberwarfare and its political future: the race for talented people; the need to develop a proportionate political response framework before a disruptive or destructive cyber incident occurs; the increasing necessity to expose some cyber capabilities in order to strengthen cyber deterrence; the importance of integrating physical and digital domains in order to be able to operate in the combined cyber–physical environment; and the requirement for deeper international cooperation.