"There are a lot of countries out there that look at this and realise it's cheaper, it's easier and it's got plausible deniability built into it," Adam Meyers, senior vice president of Intelligence at Crowdstrike, told ZDNet. "That's what's happening – we're seeing more countries have developed these programmes and they're going to get better at it over time." One of the reasons countries are increasing their offensive cyber capabilities is due to the impact of the global pandemic. Lockdowns and stringent travel checks made it harder for traditional espionage techniques to be effective, leading towards investment in cyber operations.
