The hybrid war
Russia's on-the-ground invasion of Ukraine has been more aggressive than many expected, and now it seems to be ramping up its cyberattacks on the country as well.
A new report from Microsoft, reported on by The Economist, gives details of 237 substantial cyberattacks that Russian agents have launched against Ukrainian assets.
The report shows that the number of attacks detected has increased since the invasion, but also that Russia's on-the-ground operations and its cyberattacks seem to be coordinated. A cyberattack against a major broadcasting company on March 1st was followed by a missile strike against a TV tower in Kyiv. During the siege of Mariupol some Ukrainians received a fake email from a Russian actor "masquerading as a Mariupol resident and falsely accusing Ukraine’s government of “abandoning” Ukrainian citizens" and the day after a nuclear power company was hacked, the Russian army took over the country's largest nuclear power station.
The true number of attacks is likely to be much higher — this report counts only those that Microsoft detects.
