Forget missiles and bullets, World War 3 could be all about crippling your phone, laptop

FBI has warned that Russian cyber agents are planning to hack into millions of phones and smartphones in UK which could give them access to almost every sensitive sector, including defence and energy.

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Wars have almost always been fought between men using axe, swords, guns, bullets, ships, tanks, planes, missiles and nuclear bombs - depending on the era. The next major war, possibly World War 3, could well ditch conventional ways of mounting an attack and even sideline the enormous threat of nukes and instead, be waged in cyberspace.

At a time when phones and laptops have already become an integral part of who a person is, invading into these devices on a large scale and have a 'devastating' effect. To this end, the FBI has already issued a warning that Russia is planning to hack into millions of laptops and mobile phones in the UK, and could be used to cripple cities at the click of a button. The warning, which has also issued nearly simultaneously by UK's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), states that Russian cyber agents are at the cusp of breaking into millions of devices used in UK. This could potentially make large swathes of the population vulnerable and open up highly-sensitive government data banks. The British press has also been reporting that Russian cyber agents are planning to seize control of UK's armed forces, energy sector and emergency services.

What makes a potential hack alarming is that there is no real scale to measure the lethality of a cyber-attack. There is also, perhaps, no chance of a detection till hackers decide to come out from their incognito state and launch an attack(s).

Security experts fear that a cyber hack and consequent attack could, therefore, wreck create absolute carnage as military installations, weapons systems and nuclear arsenals too could be taken over - in the worst case scenario.

The threat of World War 3 has been brewing since US, UK and France launched co-ordinated missile strikes in Syria despite Russia's strong warnings. The matter has now become reached an almost emergency-like state. To make things worse, UK and Russia were already engaged in a blame-game over the alleged poisoning of a former Russian spy. World peace, therefore, remains under a big cloud of threat.