Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is one of the most significant historical events of this decade, but modern war is not just limited to troops battling one another, not just limited to resources and economics, but of cyber war, the new frontier of war. There are obvious threats, things like information held digitally being leaked, but there are a lot of things hosted digitally that people don’t consider. For example, Ukraine saw their electric grid go down for over 230,000 customers in 2015 due to Russian hackers. Also, financial institutions have gone down or been wiped clean due to hackers.
Cyberattacks have been happening as long as important information has been online. The war in Ukraine has shown what these attacks can look like in modern contexts. At the start of 2022, over 150 cyberattacks were launched against Ukraine.
This meant government sites went down, malware infected a lot of essential Ukrainian services, and it meant countries around the world instantly started working harder at their own digital security. Ukraine has a lot of similar services to countries like the U.S, so they’ve been working hand in hand to increase each other's security.
The digital war in Ukraine is far more quiet than the physical one, although it is just as important and influential as it. Governments are a lot more quiet about breaches in cybersecurity, but it’s breaches like those that can cause devastating damage.
Infographic by: securitydegreehub
