Ukraine’s cyberwar chief sounds like he’s winning

He doesn't have a lot of time to spare.

The head of the Derzhspetszviazok can be forgiven for working quickly. The world order is under attack. Shchyhol is tasked with keeping Ukraine's cyber territory safe in the same way president Volodymyr Zelensky oversees the country.

Shchyhol and the people he oversees as part of the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection have dealt with cyberattacks before. Russia had been testing the security of Ukraine. More than 20 Ukrainian government institutions were attacked by Russia on January 14. The attack made its way into the Ukrainian internet. Around 90 websites were not accessible as a result of that attack. He says that the goal of the Russian hackers was to sow panic among the Ukrainian population and to demonstrate to the outside world thatUkraine is a weak state. This is the reason why the websites were reopened. He says it took them close to a week to find a site. The result of the attack was more psychological warfare.

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When Russian soldiers began intruding into Ukraine’s physical territory, the attacks in cyberspace stepped up. For a full month, Russia targeted communications nodes, media, logistics, and railways, says Shchyhol. “At that time, there were lots of civilians—noncombatant Ukrainians fleeing to safer places,” he adds. “That’s why the goal of those attacks was to disrupt the work of communications lines, and railways in particular.”

Shchyhol says that we are in the third stage of Russia's cyberwar against Ukraine, mostly against civilian infrastructure, since they failed to destroy in the second phase. The cybersecurity chief says that Russia has a digital war strategy. He says the attitude is the same. They are treated as criminals trying to destroy our country, invading it on the land, and also trying to disrupt and destroy our lifestyle in cyberspace. Our job is to protect our country.

Russia's hacker army could wipe out the country digitally, just as many in the international community worried, but the defense of its cyber assets has surprised some. Shchyhol says that Putin has played his part in cyberattacks. The NotPetya virus was used by Russia to destroy the country and wreak havoc in the world. They were quiet for a couple of years afterwards. We used that pause time to get ourselves prepared for the potential attacks because they were getting themselves prepared. The cyber chief says that Ukraine's success repelling the worst of Russia's cyberattacks shows how much the country learned from previous skirmishes.