The incremental "digitalization" of human lives has accelerated exponentially in the past decade. Everyday professional and personal activities are increasingly connected to operations in the "digital realm", a multi-layered space encompassing software (online applications, artificial intelligence etc.), hardware (mobile phones, computers, tablets, and other Internet-enabled devices) and the network of services that connect individual human beings, businesses and governments virtually.
Needless to say, the flipside is that the digital realm may be exploited for various malign purposes - either by private actors and creators of digital products, who are willing to break ethical barriers for profit-seeking and also by governments, who employ the new technologies to more effectively monitor and sway their own - and foreign - populations.