For fourteen months, global headlines have been dominated by the war in Ukraine. But while attention has tended to fixate on antitank weapons, artillery systems, and armor, the conflict’s cyber component has often been absent from public discussions about the war. How much of a role have cyber warfare and digital information operations played since the invasion? What about since 2014, when Russia seized Crimea and backed proxy forces in the eastern Donbas region? What lessons on cyber resilience emerge from an examination of Ukraine’s defense against Russian cyber actions? Most fundamentally, what do Russia’s cyber operations against Ukraine tell us about the way it conceptualizes and organizes cyber activities, and how does this differ from the US approach?
To explore these fascinating—and deeply important—questions, hosts Laura Jones and Matt Moellering are joined on this episode by two guests. Gavin Wilde is a senior fellow in the Technology and International Affairs Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a former director for Russia, Baltic, and Caucasus affairs at the National Security Council. And Jason Kikta served for over twenty years in the United States Marine Corps, including seven years at United States Cyber Command designing and managing the national counter-APT and counter-ransomware missions.
Listen to the full episode below and be sure to subscribe to the Irregular Warfare Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app.
Image credit: Tim Snell (adapted by MWI)