{"id":611848,"date":"2023-02-25T08:48:48","date_gmt":"2023-02-25T14:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/25\/ukraines-year-of-war-exposes-changing-roles-for-cyber-weapons\/"},"modified":"2023-02-25T08:48:48","modified_gmt":"2023-02-25T14:48:48","slug":"ukraines-year-of-war-exposes-changing-roles-for-cyber-weapons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/25\/ukraines-year-of-war-exposes-changing-roles-for-cyber-weapons\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine\u2019s year of war exposes changing roles for cyber weapons"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

On the one-year anniversary of Russia\u2019s invasion, Ukraine is commemorating horrific losses \u2014 and remarkable defiance.<\/p>\n

The country\u2019s fierce resistance on the battlefield has been echoed on the digital front \u2014 where Kyiv has unique experience. The conflict with Russia has become the world\u2019s first full-scale cyberwar, but Ukraine was a test bed for digital weapons<\/a> long before the invasion of 24 February, 2022. Since Putin\u2019s troops began flooding across the border, the cyber tactics have shifted dramatically.<\/p>\n

These developments have made Ukraine a bellwether for digital warfare. And to the surprise of analysts, cyber attacks\u00a0have had a limited impact over the past year.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to see cyber activity as a pre-emptive tactic to physical war.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In the lead-up to the invasion, cyber assaults were prominent. On 15 February, Russian hackers<\/a> launched the most powerful DDoS attack<\/a> in the history of Ukraine. A day before the full-scale invasion, several government and banking websites were struck once again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet in the months that followed, reports of major cyberattacks declined. Zachary Warren<\/a>,\u00a0Chief Security Advisor EMEA at\u00a0<\/span>Tanium<\/a> and a regular advisor to NATO, regards this as a portent for digital warfare.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving forward, we\u2019re going to see cyber activity as a pre-emptive tactic to physical war\u2026 it\u2019s a tool to weaken a target before moving in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s government, meanwhile, asserts that Russia\u2019s targets have changed. In a January report<\/a>, security officials said the cyberattacks initially centred on Ukraine\u2019s communication department, which aimed to disrupt military and government operations. But after Russia\u2019s first defeat at the front, the focus shifted to maximising damage to civilians.<\/p>\n

Notably, the officials found that<\/span> all the assaults had harnessed previously known techniques.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe attacks used by Russia have long been categorised and have straightforward solutions for counteraction,\u201d said the report\u2019s\u00a0authors.<\/p>\n

\"Infographic
Analysts found that cyber attacks hit their highest levels in the build-up to the invasion. Credit: Crowdstrike<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Many analysts expected cyberattacks to be more prevalent and devastating. Adam Meyers<\/a>, Head of Intelligence at security firm\u00a0CrowdStrike<\/a>,\u00a0believes Russia had expected a quick and decisive victory. As a result, the Kremlin may have initially avoided destructive cyberattacks, because it would have needed Ukrainian infrastructure to prop up a friendly government.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Russian operations failed to take Kyiv and make advances as rapidly as planned, we saw more tactical cyber operations paired with kinetic effects targeting\u00a0Ukraine\u00a0and did not see broad attacks against the West \u2014 as we all had prepared for,\u201d said Meyers.<\/p>\n

\"The
Cloudflare found human internet traffic dropped by as much as 33% in the weeks following February 24, but has recovered as Ukrainian refugees have returned to the country.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The modest impact of Russia\u2019s cyber weapons has not been for want of trying. In January, Viktor Zhora, a senior figure at Ukraine\u2019s cybersecurity<\/a> agency, said cyberattacks in the country had tripled<\/a> over the past year. Zhora wants the digital assaults <\/span>to be prosecuted as war crimes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite the onslaught, Ukraine\u2019s networks have remained remarkably resilient. Analysts give much of the credit<\/a> to Ukraine\u2019s repair crews, its widespread connectivity to networks outside the country, and its large number of internet exchange points<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Some pundits argue that digital weapons are simply less effective than physical warfare, while others believe Russia\u2019s capabilities were overrated.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Another factor is Ukraine\u2019s persistent efforts to strengthen its defences. The lengthy conflict with Russia have provided immense experience of mitigating cyberattacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis made us stronger,\u201d Zhora said last year<\/a>. \u201cWe took our lessons from this cyber aggression.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

There will be more more lessons to come, but Ukraine already has much to teach its allies about cyber warfare.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Thomas Macaulay<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the one-year anniversary of Russia\u2019s invasion, Ukraine is commemorating horrific losses \u2014 and remarkable defiance. The country\u2019s fierce resistance on the battlefield has been echoed on the digital front \u2014 where Kyiv has unique experience. The conflict with Russia has become the world\u2019s first full-scale cyberwar, but Ukraine was a test bed for digital<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":611849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,46,24659],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-611848","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-exposes","8":"category-technology","9":"category-ukraines"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}