As Russian forces built up near the Ukraine border at the start of this year, tensions grew about whether or not an invasion would occur. But at the same time, there were numerous digital incursions over the border, as cyberattacks affected key Ukrainian infrastructure.
In the middle of January, the so-called WhisperGate attack took down around 70 Ukrainian government websites, and on 15 February a cyberattack briefly disrupted two Ukrainian state-owned banks. The UK鈥檚 National Cyber Security Centre that it already had evidence that meant it was 鈥渁lmost certain鈥� the Main Intelligence Directorate, the Russian military鈥檚 foreign intelligence agency, was involved
Malware attacks targeting Ukrainian institutions and infrastructure were also launched on 23 February, the day before the Russian invasion. These , according to digital security firm ESET.
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While these attacks were disruptive, they came nowhere near the worst-case scenario : that an all-out cyberwar would coincide with a military invasion, taking out and keeping down vital communications technology and infrastructure.
Why were the cyberattacks not as bad as feared?
at ESET says: 鈥淎fter two weeks of atrocities in the shape of physical war, the cyber threat is yet to create the impact to businesses and people around the world once predicted.鈥�
Ukraine has experienced regular cyberattacks since 2014, with targets including and the country鈥檚 . at King鈥檚 College London says this may have honed Ukraine鈥檚 defensive skills, but it may also not be to Russia鈥檚 advantage to launch devastating attacks on a country in which it has thousands of troops.
鈥淲e have enough eyes on Russian actors to have a pretty fair idea of what is, and what is not, happening. Broadly speaking, we expected cyberwarfare to play a bigger part in this war,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut let鈥檚 not forget, it鈥檚 been playing a very big part for the past seven, eight years in Ukraine, which you could view as the first phase of a war. It鈥檚 just that when the main, conventional phase of military operations started, it seems to have been pushed to one side.鈥�
In short, Russia may be wary of bringing down internet connections, mobile phone networks and power grids that its own military will also be relying on, says Stevens.
Has Ukraine had outside help to stop cyberattacks?
Yes, and this may have shored-up defences and limited the effectiveness of any cyberattacks.
Two days before the invasion, the that it was leading a team of international cyber experts to help bolster Ukraine鈥檚 defences, and the US and UK have to Ukraine to assist. A host of security companies, as well as tech giants Microsoft and Google, also to Ukrainian organisations, which are being used to spot and stop attacks.
鈥淢aybe Ukrainian cyber defences are a lot better than we鈥檇 expected,鈥� says Stevens. 鈥淵our allies can help you to improve your cyber defences, and maybe they鈥檙e just quite good at repelling some of those attacks. When push comes to shove, it may be that the Russians have tried stuff, but we鈥檝e either not seen them or they鈥檝e been repulsed.鈥�
The technical security and intelligence service of Ukraine claimed that attempted distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks designed to bring down government websites had been continuous throughout the war, but had been largely unsuccessful.
鈥淭he only thing the occupants managed to do was to substitute the front pages at the sites of some local authorities,鈥� . 鈥淲e will endure! On the battlefields and in the cyberspace!鈥�
Is Ukraine fighting back?
Ukrainian citizens are engaged in cyberwarfare with Russia. One Ukrainian computer programmer, now working outside the country, told New Scientist that when war broke out, he quickly formed a hacktivist group to attack Russia.
The hacker, who asked not to be named, now runs a volunteer group of more than 500 members who target Russian institutions in DDoS attacks. 鈥淭here are other groups, of course; mine is small but active and effective,鈥� he says. 鈥淧eople do it for free, from morning till late evening.鈥�
Groups such as the international activist hacker group Anonymous聽also claim to be seeing success in attacking Russia, including .
