cyberwar

noun

cy·​ber·​war ˈsī-bər-ˌwȯr 

plural cyberwars

1

: a state of conflict (as between nations) in which attacks are carried out by means of cyber warfare

In a cyberwar, the offensive force picks the battlefield, and the other side may not even realize when it's under attack.

—Gregory Vistica

Also, unlike warfare in the real world, cyberwars are won and lost by private sector companies and their ability to protect their networks and spot attacks.

—Franz-Stefan Gady

2

: cyber warfare

That BBC conversation went into a discussion of cyberwarfare, and I made the point that I thought the role of cyberwar in conflict had been overestimated.

—David G. W. Birch

Examples of cyberwar in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

If cyberwar is the hacking of online networks, LikeWar is the hacking of the people on them, using their likes and shares to make a preferred narrative go viral. —P. W. Singer, Foreign Affairs, 5 Dec. 2023

Two years ago the cyberwar widened to target civilians on a large scale. —Paul Mozur, New York Times, 31 Oct. 2023

Russia is far from the only country that engages in offensive cyberwar tactics. —Dhruv Mehrotra, WIRED, 9 Sep. 2023

Iran and Israel are engaged in a cyberwar that has now escalated to include Iranian attacks on Israeli hospitals and Israeli attacks on Iranian gas stations. —Kenneth M. Pollack, Foreign Affairs, 19 Apr. 2022

Word History

First Known Use

1992, in the meaning defined at sense 1