Talk about a "Russian trace" in the US presidential race continues. Western intelligence agencies claim that Russian hackers interfered in the elections, but they do not provide evidence. They could be taken at their word if they were gentlemen, but alas. Meanwhile, the Russian cyber army is not the most funded in the international arena. This is evidenced by a study by Zecurion Analytics, which compiled rating of the most powerful cyber troops of 2017.
United States leading rating of the 10 strongest armies in the world Is the most aggressive nation in the world when it comes to espionage and attacks in cyberspace. The United States focused its attention on network warfare back in 2010, when the United States Cyber Command combined the capabilities of the Air Force, Navy and Marine Cyber Armies under one roof. Billions of dollars have been invested in this project. Two years ago, the Pentagon announced a massive expansion of its cyber capabilities, increasing its staff from 1,800 in 2014 to 6,000 in 2016. Also, the United States is the only country ever to start a real cyber war. This happened during the Obama presidency, when his administration used cyberattacks to destroy thousands of Iranian centrifuges used to enrich nuclear materials. As the Department of Defense acknowledged, these actions were an illegal act of war.
China is following a similar path, which recently announced that it will unify its capabilities to fulfill the mission set by Secretary General Xi Jinping - transforming the People's Liberation Army into a force capable of "fighting and winning modern wars."
Russia is in the top 5 most powerful cyber armies in the world. In 2008, during the conflict between Georgia and South Ossetia, Russian hackers carried out DDOS attacks on Georgian government resources, so successfully that the servers of the official Georgian sites had to be moved abroad. And in early 2014, the American media reported that the Cyber Snake virus, which allowed to destroy data and disable Ukrainian networks, was written by Russian specialists.
London is another strong player in the cyber arena. In 2015, the British Government Communications Center, responsible for electronic intelligence, managed to prevent an attack by hackers from the Fancy Bears believed to be connected to Moscow. The hackers planned to create obstacles to the work of British ministries and TV channels.
Top 8 countries with the strongest cyber troops
Several dozen states have officially specialized units dealing with cybersecurity issues, and unofficially, several hundred. At the same time, not a single country has officially admitted that it is she who is behind this or that action in the information war in Europe or the United States, be it an attack on the OSCE's computer networks or interference in the struggle between Clinton and Trump.
High-tech espionage is widespread among the countries of Europe and Asia and serves not only for government benefits, but also for commercial and criminal gain. The average cost of an attack varies by country, but it is high - over $ 15 million in the US and $ 6 million in the United Kingdom, according to the World Economic Forum.
In addition to the countries occupying the first 8 places in the Zecurion Analytics list, Iran also has a strong cyber army.In 2012, Iranian hackers struck Saudi Arabia's national oil company, Saudi Aramco, nearly destroying its corporate IT infrastructure, leaving the company on a tough time.