Digital State Erasure: Data as Both a Target and a Vector of Political and Military Influence

Abstract

Modern states increasingly rely on digital infrastructures and critical data for continuity, governance, and societal resilience. As national functions become more and more digitalized, the accumulation of sensitive data increases data-related risks, including hostile interference and exploitation. This paper introduces the concept of digital state erasure as an analytical framework, defined as the deliberate destruction, manipulation, or strategic exploitation of a nation’s critical data in ways that undermine its ability to govern, provide services, authenticate its population, or defend itself. Unlike conventional cyberattacks, digital state erasure targets datasets whose compromise can dissolve a state’s operational capacity and institutional coherence. Drawing on critical data studies, this paper conceptualizes critical national data as three interlinked categories and demonstrates how disruptions in either the target or vector dimension can cascade across national systems. This paper further argues that control over critical data constitutes the foundation of state authority and continuity in cyberspace. Losing that control risks digitally erasing a state, even in the absence of conventional military conflict.