The world is in the midst of a “great sorting”, with the danger of global polarisation dragging in cyber security professionals against their will, warns an influential international cyber expert.
Delivering a keynote address this week at ITWeb Security Summit 2025 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, Jeff Moss, president of DEF CON Communications and founder of Black Hat conferences, said this sorting is due to a polarised geopolitical landscape and burgeoning online connections.
In a world marked by escalating tensions and shifting alliances, causing uncertainty and complexity, it has become a lot easier for us to simply put people in different boxes, he said. While this can lead to oversimplification, it allows us to make quick decisions in complex environments.
This situation is exacerbated by continually expanding interconnectedness afforded by the internet, which leads to a great sorting, as compartmentalising makes it easier for our brains to handle.
Moss cited Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 as an example. “When the invasion happened, everybody freaked out. This kicked off a cascading series of events that we're still dealing with today.”
MongoDB decided to kick Russian projects off its platform. The United States imposed restrictions on Russia and, as a result, Visa stopped processing payments in Russia to avoid sanctions.
“In our interconnected world, one action triggers another, and then another and then another,” he said.
Here we saw very clear evidence of people picking sides. In response to the invasion, Ukraine openly called on cyber criminals to help defend the country and Ukraine's military even sent awards to vigilante hacker groups for carrying out cyber attacks against Russia.
In another example, Moss mentioned how the Indian government banned TikTok over concerns that the popular app posed a threat to the country’s sovereignty and national security. The ban came after a confrontation between Indian and Chinese troops on the border. TikTok estimated the ban cost it about $3 billion.
“I bring this up because what we do now in the infosec space has become political. Ten years ago, you could argue it wasn't really political, but it is now deeply political, and we have to recognise that,” he said.
Dubbing this trend “application diplomacy”, Moss highlighted that as the internet evolves as a battlefield, it’s important for cyber security professionals to be mindful about how they’re being sorted and about what side they actually want to be on.
“Things are only going to get more complicated and you don't want to jump in the wrong direction unless you absolutely have to, or unless you're forced to pick a side.”
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