Recent conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have confirmed what defence professionals saw coming years ago. Cyber operations now precede kinetic strikes. Digital infrastructure is targeted alongside physical. And the organisations that survive aren’t the ones with the best firewalls, they’re the ones built to absorb and adapt, writes Ayman Gomaa, Global Leadership Strategist, Special Operations Veteran, and Founder of Acacia Innovations Technology.

Modern attackers don’t announce themselves. They quietly map, probe, and observe, often for weeks or months before any visible action. We saw this clearly in Ukraine long before February 2022. And it continues to be the pattern in virtually every high-stakes operating environment, he adds.