UK Aids Ukraine with Cyber

 Wars fought increasingly by computational means ...

UK spent £6.4m on secret cyber package for Ukraine

Westminster has revealed for the first time the existence of a previously top-secret security programme that has been helping Ukraine fend off Russian cyber attacks

By  Alex Scroxton, Computerworld Security Editor  Published: 02 Nov 2022 13:45

The UK government has lifted the lid on a previously top secret cyber programme that has been supporting Ukrainian government agencies and critical national infrastructure (CNI) operators from Russia cyber attacks for months.

The Ukraine Cyber Programme was swiftly mobilised in the days after Russian forces invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, in response to an “increasing tempo of Russian cyber activity”.

As reported by Computer Weekly at the time, this activity included waves of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and the use of data wiper malwares.

Backed by a funding package of £6.35m, the programme’s existence has been protected until now to maintain its operational security.

Its work has included incident response support and forensics, protecting organisations against destructive cyber attacks, preventing malicious actors from accessing information relevant to Ukraine’s war effort, limiting access to vital networks, and support in hardening critical infrastructure and networks.

“Russia’s attack on Ukraine is not limited to its horrific land invasion. It has also persistently attempted to invade Ukraine’s cyber space, threatening critical information, services and infrastructure,” said foreign secretary James Cleverly.

“The UK’s support to Ukraine is not limited to military aid – we are drawing on Britain’s world-leading expertise to support Ukraine’s cyber defences. Together, we will ensure that the Kremlin is defeated in every sphere: on land, in the air and in cyber space.” ... '

How Ukraine has defended itself against cyberattacks

 Something to learn here. 

How Ukraine has defended itself against cyberattacks—lessons for the US

by Robert Peacock, The Conversation

In 2014, as Russia launched a proxy war in Eastern Ukraine and annexed Crimea, and in the years that followed, Russian hackers hammered Ukraine. The cyberattacks went so far as to knock out the power grid in parts of the country in 2015. Russian hackers stepped up their efforts against Ukraine in the run-up to the 2022 invasion, but with notably different results. Those differences hold lessons for U.S. national cyber defense.

I'm a cybersecurity researcher with a background as a political officer in the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv and working as an analyst in countries of the former Soviet Union. Over the last year, I led a USAID-funded program in which Florida International University and Purdue University instructors trained more than 125 Ukrainian university cybersecurity faculty and more than 700 cybersecurity students. Many of the faculty are leading advisors to the government or consult with critical infrastructure organizations on cybersecurity. The program emphasized practical skills in using leading cybersecurity tools to defend simulated enterprise networks against real malware and other cybersecurity threats.

The invasion took place just weeks before the national cybersecurity competition was to be held for students from the program's 14 participating universities. I believe that the training that the faculty and students received in protecting critical infrastructure helped reduce the impact of Russian cyberattacks. The most obvious sign of this resilience is the success Ukraine has had in keeping its internet on despite Russian bombs, sabotage and cyberattacks.

What this means for the U.S.

On March 21, 2022, U.S. President Joe Biden warned the American public that Russia's capability to launch cyberattacks is "fairly consequential and it's coming." As Deputy National Security Adviser Anne Neuberger explained, Biden's warning was a call to prepare U.S. cyber defenses.

The concern in the White House over cyberattacks is shared by cybersecurity practitioners. The Ukrainian experience with Russian cyberattacks provides lessons for how institutions ranging from electric power plants to public schools can contribute to strengthening a nation's cyber defenses. .... '