Chapter 6
Cyberconicts, Cyberwars
and Cyberpower
6.1 Understanding the context
Cyberattack: a question of terminology and meanings
The term “cyberattack” can have several meanings, depending on the tar-
gets, victims, motivations of the perpetrators, scope, impact, and the conse-
quences of the attacks. Some have minor impacts and can often be attributed
to straightforward delinquency, while others could have drastically negative
effects on people, organizations, and states, and could be linked to crime, ter-
rorism, or war.
When combining the impact on a specic target with the generic conse-
quences of an attack in the wider world, it is possible to develop a classica-
tion of cyberattacks having signicant negative impacts on society