A Blog by Jonathan Low

 

Sep 8, 2022

Global Cyber Defense Collaboration Deepens In Response To Russia's Ukraine Attack

One aspect of Russia's invasion of Ukraine that is strengthening global democratic responses to totalitarianism is the growing cooperation among nations concerned about cybersecurity and disinformation. 

That collaboration has demonstrably helped Ukraine in its fight and will help all the nations involved in it in the future. JL 

Dustin Volz reports in the Wall Street Journal:

Western intelligence officials and security analysts say a variety of factors have limited Russian hackers’ impact during the war. But many point to U.S.-led efforts to share intelligence, train Ukrainian cybersecurity personnel, bulletproof Ukraine’s network defenses and bolster its critical infrastructure against cyberattack. That has fueled interest in broader international cooperation.“The cyberwar unleashed by Russia against Ukraine showed the importance of uniting the international community to counter aggression in cyberspace. Joining with partners has become one of the pillars of successful countering cyberattacks.”

In the years leading up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Moscow’s hackers hammered the country with debilitating cyberattacks, including a pair that knocked out the lights to hundreds of thousands of people in two successive winters.

Since the war began in February, however, cyber defenses put in place with the help of Western nations appear to have blunted Russia’s hacking advantage while fueling more international cooperation in cyberspace among Kyiv’s allies, current and former U.S. and European officials said.

While the fight for territory has been fierce and Russian shelling has leveled Ukrainian cities, Ukraine has largely avoided suffering large-scale cyberattacks like those Moscow had previously unleashed.

Western intelligence officials and security analysts say a variety of factors have limited Russian hackers’ impact during the war. But many point to U.S.-led efforts to share intelligence, train Ukrainian cybersecurity personnel, bulletproof Ukraine’s network defenses and bolster its critical infrastructure against cyberattack. That, too, has fueled interest in broader international cooperation.

On Thursday, Ukraine’s cyber-defense agency announced a new memorandum of cyber-defense cooperation with Romania, to broaden the sharing of information about cyber incidents and vulnerabilities, among other areas of collaboration. The announcement followed a similar one between Ukraine and Poland last month.

“The cyberwar unleashed by Russia against Ukraine showed the importance of uniting the international community to counter aggression in cyberspace,” Yuriy Shchygol, chief of Ukraine’s cyber agency, said after the Poland agreement. “Joining efforts with partners has become one of the pillars of successful countering enemy cyberattacks.”

Victor Zhora, the deputy head of Ukraine’s cyber-defense agency, has said support from the U.S. and other allies has helped blunt Russia’s cyberattacks.PHOTO: UKRAINE GOVERNMENT/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Organizations and governments rely on the rapid exchange of technical information about hacking threats and other streams of intelligence, such as the priorities of a foreign adversary, to safeguard their own computer systems. But concerns about security and secrecy and other sources of friction often limit sharing of more sensitive insights. Before and during the war, the U.S. and other allies have given priority to supporting Ukraine with both intelligence and cybersecurity training, and have been forceful about condemning alleged Russian cyber aggression when they identify it.

The U.S. military’s Cyber Command has deployed “hunt forward” teams of cyber-defense personnel to allied countries, including Ukraine last year, to identify threats to critical computer networks and educate those countries on how to protect them. Cyber Command said last month it had completed 35 hunt-forward operations in 18 countries, including Croatia, Estonia, Lithuania, Montenegro and North Macedonia.

The war has led some Western countries to put aside at least temporarily some of their disagreements on technology policy in favor of treating collective cybersecurity as a front-burner priority, said Chris Painter, the top cyber diplomat in the Obama administration.

“This has galvanized a new era of cyber cooperation between the U.S. and Europe,” Mr. Painter said, citing as an example recent progress in a United Nations working group focused on developing international cybersecurity standards.

Viktor Zhora, the deputy head of Ukraine’s cyber-defense agency, and several other Ukrainian officials attended a security conference in New York City in late July where they attributed their nation’s successes against Russia in part to support from U.S. and other allies. Mr. Zhora and his entourage were feted as guests of honor there and met with senior U.S. officials, including Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Wray.

The efforts by the U.S. and European allies in the lead-up to the war and during the first days of hostilities “created a huge defensive force for Ukraine and…is one more reason we can continue to be resilient even during war,” Mr. Zhora said at the conference.

Anne Neuberger, President Biden’s top adviser on cybersecurity, visited several European nations in early February to press for expanded cooperation, and during the war she has sought quickly to publicize cyber threats emanating from Russia.

Russia’s experience also has revealed the limited capability of cyberattacks to turn the tide in a war, even though Russia is widely considered to possess some of the world’s most proficient hackers, analysts said.

Ukrainian officials have said they think Russia had activated its full offensive cyber capabilities against Ukraine as the war dragged on and was unlikely to deploy entirely new or unexpected cyber weapons. Such sophisticated attacks receive significant attention but can take a year or longer to develop.

“To use cyber to support a full-scale invasion you have to plan it incredibly well for a long period of time and execute it immaculately,” said Ciaran Martin, the former director of the U.K. National Cyber Security Center.

 

Current and former Western security officials, however, have warned against overconfidence and stressed that Russia’s military and intelligence services are resourceful, patient and disciplined in their use of cyber capabilities.

“We must remember that Russia has not launched a level of intensity of cyberattacks on Ukraine that many would have expected and has not tested the West’s cyber defenses at all since the beginning of the conflict,” Mr. Martin said.

Before the war, Russian hackers took Ukrainian government websites offline and tried to install destructive “wiper” software designed to disable computer systems. Since then, Ukraine’s government and critical business networks have faced a constant drumbeat of small-scale attacks.

One of the most notable came on Feb. 24, the first day of the war, when an attack on satellite internet provider Viasat’s KA-SAT network rendered thousands of modems in Ukraine unusable, impairing communications among Ukraine’s armed forces. The U.S., U.K. and European Union later blamed Russia for the disruption, which lasted several days.

Russia hasn’t claimed responsibility for the attack and has routinely denied allegations that it engages in destructive cyberattacks against other countries.



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