Leaders of countrywide cyber security companies resolved CYBERUK 2022 right now, telling of the most outstanding learnings from the war concerning Russia and Ukraine, with 1 fearing that it could inform a blueprint for cyber warfare in the long term.
“We all comprehended that [the war in Ukraine] was heading to be the initial exercise and integration of cyber [attacks] with kinetic effects,” stated Abigail Bradshaw, head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC). “Our concern was that others would be watching this playbook for the purpose of finding out from its highs and lows, and fine-tuning that.”
Requested what he would take absent from observing the war in Ukraine from the viewpoint of cyber warfare approach, Paul Chichester, director of operations at the UK’s Nationwide Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), mentioned the key topic is resilience and acquiring the essentials right.

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“Resilience is the reply, and you can see, the Russians have been earning the Ukrainians match match for the very last 6 decades,” he claimed. “So via that lens, if you search at the incredible function the Ukrainians have accomplished and the support they have had, I feel that’s played into it as effectively.
“If you actually aim on the basic principles, and you aim on the resilience aspect, and you make your defences, and you concentrate far more on by yourself and much less than your adversary, truly, that performs considerably to your favour, when maybe you find on your own faced with that conflict. I think, really considerably, resilience is the line that we would draw from this.”
GCHQ director Sir Jeremy Fleming opened proceedings with a speech partially themed about the conflict in Ukraine and claimed the so-known as cyber war that the market envisioned to crack out was somewhat “overblown”.
Nevertheless, Sir Jeremy claimed there was even now overseas selection of action that has taken put in the area and Ukraine’s cyber security abilities were remarkably effective in stifling Russia’s makes an attempt in cyber room.
The NCSC “has observed what seems like” action that has spilt in excess of into other international locations as Russian operatives carry on to concentrate on all those who oppose its actions.
Afterwards in the working day, information broke that the UK formally attributed the cyber attacks on Ukraine in the early stages of the invasion – the attacks on governing administration sites and on Viasat – to Russia.
Lindy Cameron, CEO at the NCSC, informed members of the press that this is a prime example of the spillover from cyber attacks Sir Jeremy alluded to earlier in the day.
Fears of spillover outcomes of cyber attacks had been very first voiced by the NCSC previously this yr. There is a historic precedent for Russian-joined cyber attacks directed at Ukraine impacting the broader Western globe.
The NotPetya attack in 2017, for case in point, crippled programs not only in Ukraine but broader into the West and even some documented circumstances in Russia way too.
Cameron also mentioned the degree of spillover is not as important as that viewed in the 2017 malware attacks.
“This is the clearest illustration we’ve viewed so far of [spillover] going on and consequently reinforcing our messages about the significance of boosting resilience,” she mentioned.
The unprecedented increase in hacktivism was a further noteworthy takeaway for the professionals addressing delegates, with both Cameron and Juhan Lepassaar, govt director at ENISA, expressing the activity by the likes of the IT Military of Ukraine was “a concern”.
Presented that hacktivism is nevertheless hacking – a criminal offense – Cameron said “we would like to see folks sticking to the rules, but it’s understandable.”
Some parts of this write-up are sourced from:
www.itpro.co.uk