by The war between Russia and Ukraine has lasted for more than a year and this situation has once again aroused fears of the possibility of a third world war breaking out or a war in which nuclear weapons could be used.
The position that Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, has had, produces considerable uncertainty because the president has not yielded in his actions despite the fact that have received sanctions from the European Union and NATO.
Therefore, many people around the world fear that the lack of agreement between Putin and other world powers on his actions after invading Ukrainian territory could raise the pressure and eventually lead powerful nations to take military action against Russian forces.
Said scenario could later trigger a war where the United States, Russia, China, the European Union and other countries would use all their weapons power to win the conflict.
Within the framework of this hypothetical, experts in military cybersecurity have begun to establish that there is a possibility that in the course of 2023 the human race will begin to wage its wars in outer space. According to analysts, in the coming months a large-scale cyberattack against very important satellites such as those of Starlinkwhich were put into orbit by Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX.
Space war in 2023
The Space Security Information Exchange (SSIE) entity developed an analysis based on the different events that have occurred since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began. Subsequently, the president of the space security entity in collaboration with Neil Sherwin-Peddie, director of BAE Systems Digital Intelligence, stated that at this time there is a considerable probability that cyberattacks will be carried out against the North American ViaSat and Starlink satellite network. .
It should be noted that tables ago the United Kingdom, the European Union and the United States have denounced that Vladimir Putin has an army of hackers that operate from Russia or different parts of the worldTherefore, Putin also has the ability to wage war in the digital arena.
In fact, at the time, the US claimed that hours before the entry of Russian troops into the borders of Ukraine, a team of hackers carried out a cyberattack to disable the connection with the US KA-SAT satellite. Later it became known that the operation of 6,000 wind energy turbines located in German territory was affected by the actions of Russian hackers.
How would the space war be fought?
According to research carried out by SSIE and BAE Systems Digital Intelligence, there are currently several ways to carry out a coordinated cyberattack against the satellite network, which would make it possible to intercept a country’s confidential communications. Neil Sherwin-Peddie argues that through this action it would be possible to block contact between enemy troops, in addition to provide tactical information to eliminate military forces that are executing an operation in war zones.
So hackers could take the theft of military information in the midst of a war between superpowers to a new level.
However, the report does not specify whether the hijacking of enemy satellites could be part of a strategy by Russia to counteract the actions of its enemies, without having to resort to the nuclear weapons it has. Nor does it establish whether Vladimir Putin could use the data your hacking team gathers to better prepare for an atomic bomb attack.
It should be remembered that a couple of months ago a team of scientists, together with experts in security and nuclear weapons from Princeton University, in the United States, generated a simulation that sought to expose the level of devastation that a nuclear conflict between the United States and Russia.
According to the data generated by the group of specialists, the use of atomic bombs could leave close to 34 million deaths and more than 57 million wounded in just a couple of hours. Therefore, a war with nuclear weapons could bring about the end of the human race in a matter of days.
On the other hand, the UN has said that there are about 13,400 nuclear weapons in the world, of which the United States has some 3,750 nuclear warheads in its arsenal, while Russia has 1,444 warheads deployed in 527 ballistic missiles that can be launched from submarines. .
But it is also key to underline that The US and Russia are not the only nations with atomic weapons in their arsenalChina, France, India, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and North Korea are some of the countries that could participate in a conflict on a nuclear scale.
