Nations have the technology for cyber war, but no-one wants to fire the first shot, according to Massimiliano Falcinelli, head of security infrastructure at the ‎International Atomic Energy Agency. 

“Different governments are preparing themselves for cyber war,” he said in an interview at DCD’s Zettastructure event in London. “It looks like fantasy but it is not fantasy any more.”

Howevever, the individual attackers and their government bosses are reluctant to actually start a cyber war. ”The attackers will do it in an anonymous way, so they can’t be caught and their government isn’t found out,” he said. For this reason, “they are preparing it, but they don’t want to do it.”

Cyber attacks for commercial reasons are a different story, he said: “In the past, a hacker was a guy like a script kid, who just wanted to make some fun,” said Falcinelli. ”It is not fun any more, when we talk about attacks taking down an entire facility. Now there is money and sponsors behind it.”