Operation Red October fuels debate over cyber espionage

Security experts at Kaspersky Lab — a Russian anti-virus firm — disclosed the existence of a large-scale cyber espionage operation in January 2013. Dubbed Operation Red October, it targeted over 39 different countries across multiple regions and exfiltrated confidential information from both public and private organisations over a five-year timeframe. Diplomatic missions, government agencies and energy research centres are among the many groups affected. The operation adds to a growing list of prominent cases in the last decade that have been labelled ‘cyber espionage’. But one question has not yet been addressed: do Operation Red October and other similar cases prove that cyber espionage has become the new platform from which to project national power? The answer? They do not.