Cyberspace, Logistics and National Security Threats, Not Necessarily in that Order

Abstract

Concerns over the potential exploitation of cyberspace vulnerabilities to cause logistical inefficiency in matters of national security have endured for almost a quarter of a century. This article updates the stage of this debate and extends the analysis to the reciprocal threats posed by these three areas. A descriptive methodology, grounded on governmental sources, academic papers and news articles, is used to correlate known threats posed by cyberspace to supply chain, and National Security, one to each other, and their possible impacts.  This article demonstrates that, in addition to the well-debated fact that cyberattacks can exploit existing vulnerabilities at different levels of the increasing automation present in logistics systems, posing new threats that can incapacitate military systems or civilian infrastructures related to national security, there is a growing threat posed by logistics to hardware and software products (or cyberspace) and national security, as well as the weaponization of national security decisions made in some countries endanger the cyber (or not) supply chains of other nations, with repercussions on the development of cyberspace itself.