Andrew Davidson
On Sept. 19-20, coordinated cyberattacks disabled airport check-in systems across Europe, stranding passengers and forcing airports onto manual backups. It was the most visible case in a rising tempo of disruptions targeting European infrastructure last month.
Cyber operations are often considered to occupy a “lower rung” on the so-called escalation ladder, but this is an oversimplification. Escalation is defined not by the method of attack but by how much the attack alters or degrades an adversary’s capacity to act. The events in Europe over the past month highlight that escalation can arrive digitally, producing paralysis and pressure without a shot being fired.
Modern societies operate on fragile systems of communication and navigation. When those networks are disabled, society grinds to a halt, in the same way that a modern military force deprived of ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance), GPS navigation, communications and targeting sensors loses the ability to see, coordinate and strike effectively. Nowhere is this vulnerability clearer than in the United States – physically secure behind oceans and layered defenses, yet critically dependent on digital infrastructure that is globally connected and therefore globally exposed. A strike on this information backbone can have the same operational effect as destroying a physical installation – and indeed can destroy infrastructure in certain cases – often at far lower cost and with greater deniability.
This reframing matters because it alters how to measure risk and intent. A missile strike on a radar site and malware that blinds the same radar produce equivalent outcomes: loss of coverage, degraded tempo and hesitation at the command level. For societies already weary of conflict, repeated digital disruptions to energy and water may be enough to pressure leaders into restraint. Cyber is therefore not merely harassment; it is a parallel form of coercion that contests the very advantages modern militaries rely on to fight. Cyber escalation collapses distance and erases the line between front and rear, degrading militaries at the point of attack while pulling civilians oceans away into a digitally contested front line.
Strategic Context
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