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... When do we call it a "war"? How does "war" begin? Especially nowadays, in the digital age of cyberattacks?

"If a German corvette ship is attacked and sunk by a Russian submarine, you would call that war," Snke Marahrens, a colonel in the German Armed Forces and a military strategist, said at a recent meeting of German security forces. "But what if metal shavings were thrown into the ship's gears and it is then no longer operational: Is that war?"

Marahrens is an expert on hybrid threats. At the autumn conference of the German National Criminal Police Office (BKA), he discussed future challenges with German and international security experts in Wiesbaden.

Marahrens' example of sabotage affecting the operational capability of a German warship is a real incident which occurred in January on the corvette Emden, shortly before its delivery to the German navy.

Europe is experiencing a steady increase in hybrid attacks. Military personnel, police officers, politicians and scientists have warned that the situation is serious.

"We are experiencing cyberattacks, the circumvention of sanctions and arson attacks on a scale we have never seen before," said Silke Willems of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic intelligence agency. ...