Supermarket fridges turned up to 50C. Bomb threats paralysing airlines. Car production lines frozen. Websites used by millions suddenly blanked out.
Such technological collapse was once the stuff of dystopian fiction. No more. In the past fortnight alone, coinciding cyber attacks have wrought economic chaos across Europe.
The suspicion of many governments in the West is that hostile states such as Russia and Iran are to blame. What is clear is that the everyday systems that underpin and support civilian life now appear to be just as much of a target as military installations.
