With increasing turbulence in global geopolitics, it is perceived that the wars in 21st century would be fought in Cyberweapons equipped with artificial intelligence. How realistic is this perception? Discuss the nature and threat of such weapons.

Cyberweapons are the malware agents which are used for military, paramilitary or intelligence purpose. This perception appears to be realistic and needs necessary action to attain the objectives.
Nature of the Cyberweapons powered by Artificial intelligence is as follows:

• Automated attacks, built in logarithms will operate without any hesitations as it doesn’t require human intermediary.
• Lack of human interface results in no ethics and morals.
• Cyberspace has no national boundaries and the world is integrated in the cyber world. Hence the threat extends beyond barriers and the security of the world is at risk.
• The cyber attack with artificial intelligence will also provide anonymity in attacks.

Threats posed are as follows:

• The Cyberweapons would pose a strong challenge to globalization.
• With the rapid development of technology and evolution of artificial intelligence and internet of things, the potential harm by cyberweapons is extravagant.
• The global economy is strongly intertwined with information and communication technology tools. The cyberweapons can cause breakdown of the global economy.
• Together with intruding privacy, cyberspace can steal sensitive and critical information’s which pose a threat to the internal and external security of the country.

Recognising the vast and divergent challenges from the cyberweapons, ministry of defence of government of India is coming up with cyberspace division to secure the cyberspace of the country.