● OVERVIEW OF 2024 2024: Events in international cyberspace The year 2024 saw influence operations surrounding elections, breaches by Chinese hackers in telecom companies, and widespread IT system disruptions caused by CrowdStrike. I t was also an extraordinary year for elections. In addition to the US presidential election, the UK general election, and the European Parliament election, general or local elections were held in nearly 100 countries worldwide in 2024. For many nations, this meant increased pressure in cyberspace, with attacks ranging from denial-of-service (DoS) and defacement attempts on political party websites to information operations designed to shape voter preferences. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION FIRST ROUND ANNULLED IN ROMANIA An information operation in the context of elections generally involves the coordinated dissemination and amplification of fake news or half-truths on social media, aiming to gain votes for a particular candidate or, conversely, to diminish the support of their opponent. When foreign states conduct such operations, the situation becomes particularly grave, as it 36 amounts to external interference in a country’s democratic process. The most drastic example this year came from Romania, where the Constitutional Court decided to annul the results of the first round of presidential elections held in November. According to the country’s intelligence services, Russia had organised a coordinated influence campaign on TikTok in support of a far-right candidate. The intelligence services also reported that over 85,000 cyberattacks were carried out against election infrastructure with various objectives, such as gaining access, altering election-related information or disrupting its availability. SALT TYPHOON TARGETS TELECOM COMPANIES Iran, China and Russia also attempted to influence the US presidential election. In the final months of the year, reports began to emerge about Chinese state-backed hackers successfully infiltrating the infrastructure of several major CYBER SECURITY IN ESTONIA 2025