Khaberni - In the digital age, political and military pressures are no longer the only means to influence nations. Digital assassination and digital siege have emerged as new strategic tools used by states to pressure their adversaries or to reshape power balances. These methods rely on technology, data, communications, and digital supply chains, and are considered some of the most dangerous tools of conflict in the 21st century.
Digital Assassination — targeting states and institutions - involves disrupting or terminating the ability of a state, institution, or sector to function through precise cyber attacks. These include infiltrating energy and water networks, communications, disabling banks and digital payment centers, leaking or destroying sensitive data, controlling or converting smart infrastructure into attack tools, and damaging the reputation of financial or economic institutions through digital misinformation campaigns. The danger lies in that it is carried out without armies or missiles, but through electronic code that moves through international networks to precisely hit the target at a low cost.
Digital Siege — technological isolation as a tool of pressure - and the digital siege involves isolating a country from global technology, the internet, and digital services entirely or partially, with the aim of weakening it economically, technologically, and politically. It is done through several tools, for example: Firstly, banning technologies and software including preventing the state from using technology such as (advanced operating systems, databases, artificial intelligence, cloud digital infrastructure, advanced processors, and electronic chips); Secondly, banning international digital services including important ones like (banking services and financial transfers, electronic payment platforms, cloud mail services, global communication and advertising tools); Thirdly, isolating international communications which are central to the global internet, conducted by (disabling international internet providers, throttling undersea cables, shutting critical protocols or domains, preventing the state from accessing new internet address domains); Fourth, systematic cyber attacks aimed at destroying infrastructure or stopping vital services, such as (energy networks, transport, communications, government systems).
The digital siege causes a number of economic impacts including paralysis of e-commerce and digital industry, withdrawal of companies and foreign investments, difficulty in accessing global finance and payments, and cessation of innovation due to the absence of modern technology. The security and sovereignty impacts involve weakened ability to monitor attacks or defend against them, loss of control over national data, and threats to national security due to disruption of infrastructure. Finally, the targeted countries suffer from a number of digital and technical impacts summarized in a decline in local technology levels, inability to update systems, and isolation of users from the global internet.
Technological independence is the strategic weapon to counter the siege, requiring all nations to orient towards policies of digital independence to reduce the effects of digital assassination and siege. Such policies should include firstly: establishing local digital infrastructure from (national data centers, local DNS systems, internet networks independent of international providers); secondly: building alternative services and software including (national operating systems, local cloud services, local electronic payment applications, independent digital education and health networks); thirdly: developing local technological industries including manufacturing processors and chips, locally developing artificial intelligence, enhancing national cybersecurity; and fifthly: diversifying sources of international connectivity to prevent the digital choking of the nation through means such as satellite networks, direct land connections with ally countries...
Digital assassination and digital siege represent a profound transformation in the nature of contemporary conflicts, where data, technologies, and communications have become part of the tools of pressure and unconventional warfare. In contrast, technological autonomy has become a strategic goal for countries seeking to protect their sovereignty and build a digital system capable of operating even in cases of isolation or global disruption. Therefore, a state's possession of local technological infrastructure, independent payment and communication systems, and defensive and offensive cyber capabilities has become fundamental to national security and not just a developmental option..
