It is hardly news that cyberwarfare has become one of the most destructive weapons in modern conflict, alongside tanks, artillery, destroyers, battleships, drones, missiles and fighter jets.
Speaking of aviation, the United States, along with much of the world, spent the past two days grappling with the paralysis of civilian air traffic, chaos at American airports and confusion among passengers as hundreds of scheduled flights were disrupted.
What exactly happened?
US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was quick to explain in a post on X that the disruption resulted from a "communication issue impacting all Air Route Traffic Control Centers."
He later explained that network switches and routers had become overloaded with data, causing the system to malfunction. He also criticized Congress for holding up funding for the necessary modernization, estimated to cost around $50 billion.
Some accused the secretary of attempting to politicize the crisis and weaken the Democrats.
Yet the reality is that Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Bryan Bedford told Reuters last September that more than 300 air traffic control facilities operated as isolated technological systems, in some cases relying on decades-old computers and communications equipment that could not communicate seamlessly with one another.
But can we say with certainty that this was nothing more than a catastrophic technical failure?
US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said there was "zero evidence" so far that the failure of America's air traffic control systems had resulted from a cyberattack or rogue artificial intelligence.
He nevertheless cautioned that the problem appeared to be mechanical, but investigations were continuing and neither possibility had been ruled out.
Curiously, around the same time, Microsoft responded to an outage affecting several of its widely used services worldwide, shortly before the disruption to US civilian air traffic control systems.
The company attributed the failure to a technical issue introduced during an earlier "network capacity upgrade," insisting that it was unrelated to cyberattacks or artificial intelligence.
Is the explanation for these massive outages really that straightforward? Or are there things we do not know, or that are being deliberately concealed?
At the very least, preparations are now underway for another intense round of war with Iran. Washington is already waging a fierce economic and financial campaign against Tehran.
Indeed, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the architect of these sanctions, has been moved to a secure location away from his home following threats from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iran, Russia and China possess exceptional cyberwarfare capabilities, as does Israel.
Just days ago, several European countries experienced cyberattacks targeting refrigeration and electricity systems, with France explicitly accusing Iran of being behind the attacks.
Are the Americans promoting this explanation to deny Tehran's leaders the satisfaction of claiming victory? Or is the aim to protect the reputation of the administration and the global technology giant Microsoft?
Add to all this the scandal surrounding Nvidia, followed by the resignation of its chief executive.
Do these incidents, occurring within such a short period, form part of a single, coordinated operation? Or are they simply a series of coincidences unfolding at the same time, and nothing more?
