To an old soldier, this is bloody scary. We must revolutionise our approach to deal with cyber attacks
These last few centuries have, to put it bluntly, been bloody simple – bloody in the numbers of innocents and combatants slaughtered and simple in the character of how we killed them.
Armies, navies, marines and air forces fought each other, with civilians caught up in the crossfire. Those state on state battles may still happen but the emerging threats we face are breathtakingly complicated and far more sinister.
Modern technology allows the individual to bring industrial violence against citizens. It is no longer just the spectre of weapons of mass destruction that threatens our lives, prosperity and way of life. It is also the potential of weapons of mass disruption.
Mass slaughter, mass disruption and mass manipulation are no longer a state monopoly. These capabilities have leaked into the hands of trans-national and sub-national non-state actors.
Once released, it is bloody difficult to put them back. To an old soldier this new age is truly scary.
Complacency has dulled our vision. This reality has for some time been creeping up on us.
The strategic defence security review attempted to address some of this but followed established, rigid defence planning assumptions without guidance from the fledgling national security council.
That has provided an excuse for the Ministry of Defence to commit its resources towards a more traditional defence posture. We must confront the realities and revolutionise our approach to dealing with this new threat.
General Graeme Lamb, former director of special forces, served in Iraq and was an adviser to the US general Stanley McChrystal when he was in charge of Nato forces in Afghanistan