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Comment by the-dude | Hacker News Reader

Actually, I started wondering the last few minutes : what if the next worldwar would start on the internet? Or is this a common assumption already?

I had not connected Huawei to my conspiracy theory yet, but just did.

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People who make defense policy have been assuming the answer to that question was "yes" for about 20 years now. It's sometimes described as "cyber precedes kinetic."

https://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG1215.html

Thank you. So we are basically waiting for a Twitter outage.

If Dropbox goes down, then something serious may be going on.

I think Twitter DMs are having issues too...

Ok, so unfriendly sovereign nations are trying to “hurt” us by making social media inaccessible? I’m half joking here, but perhaps we should all be out, about, and enjoying Independence Day in person rather than through our phone screens.

(Yes I realize WhatsApp is a different segment, an important way people communicate.)

All three apps are huge for communication. It doesn't seem far fetched that a nation would test its capabilities taking down different forms of communication.

You might love Neal Stephenson's latest book "Fall, or Dodge In Hell"

It's not quite about a world war on the Internet, but it is about what could happen if the Internet suddenly stops working somewhere.

Nitpick, but it's:

Fall; or, Dodge in Hell

People would start by attacking telecoms much like they used to start with rail and harbours.

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