Cyberspace and Artificial Intelligence: The New Face of Cyber-Enhanced Hybrid Threats IntechOpen

The concepts of hybrid threat and hybrid warfare are, presently, key concepts within strategic studies1 and intelligence studies2, with a core relevance in the new defense and security context that was enabled by the twenty-first century's Fourth Industrial Revolution, driven by the synergization of cyberspace and artificial intelligence (AI), fueled by the accelerated and disruptive exponential expansion of machine learning (ML) [1, 2, 3]. Cyber operations, presently, constitute a key determinant component of hybrid strategies and tactics that configure the profile of hybrid threats and hybrid warfare [1]. Hybrid strategies, in the twenty-first century, involve the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and AI tools to combine conventional and unconventional operations, amplifying the impact of these operations [1, 2, 3]. In the current context of hybrid operations, there are, presently, three major dimensions of hybrid strategic power, understood as the ability to achieve one's strategic goals through hybrid operations, and these are: The first type of power is enabled by social networks and the ability to use cyberspace for propaganda, disinformation, and viral campaigns in what constitutes a form of information-based warfare as well as for implementing cyberattacks that can disrupt different sectors as well as stealing (and possibly leaking) of critical data. The second type of power involves the use of AI, in particular ML tools, as support tools for different cyber operations that may, in turn, support hybrid strategies.