Cyber war won’t be the same in the age of AI
AI agents are rewriting the rules of cyber warfare — and defenders don't have a playbook yet.
Why it matters
As autonomous agents proliferate in both attack and defense, traditional military doctrine (like Russian maskirovka deception tactics) breaks down. Neither attackers nor defenders can predict agent behavior reliably, creating asymmetric uncertainty that reshapes cyber-conflict strategy.
The key facts
8 to knowRussian maskirovka doctrine (deception-based strategy) assumes predictable human decision-making and breaks when non-human agents introduce uncertainty
AI agents operating autonomously on both offense and defense create mutual unpredictability
Traditional cyber-warfare assumptions no longer hold in agentic environments
Article frames cyber conflict as a profession/domain being fundamentally altered by agent deployment
Russian maskirovka doctrine designed for human adversaries; agents introduce mutual uncertainty
No strategic framework yet for cyber conflict in agentic era
Autonomous agents create novel attack surface and defense complexity
Published by Financial Times, not security-specific outlet; strategic/policy angle
Go to the source
Financial Times Technologyft.com
Publisher excerpt: The old Russian maskirovka doctrine doesn’t apply when non-human agents create uncertainty for both attackers and defenders