War with digital tools: Hybrid warfare and the damage it can inflict

Much of hybrid warfare is deniable. If a hacker takes down a public asset, it is hard to prove he was acting on behalf of a foreign government

A big-data firm linked to the Chinese government has been tracking India’s top leaders and public personalities, a collaborative investigation points out. The firm is reportedly engaged in hybrid warfare — a war waged away from borders but nevertheless with the potential to inflict serious damage. Here’s a look at what it is and how it can play out:

What is hybrid warfare?

War, according to the Prussian theorist Carl von Clausewitz, is the continuation of politics by other means. Hybrid war does this in new ways. Shorn of the jargon, hybrid warfare uses digital tools to do a variety