While the war in Ukraine might appear to be a conventional war at first, it showcases how cyberattacks are an increasingly prominent part of modern warfare. Vital decisions are made based on intelligence gathered through hacking, and communication & warfare increasingly rely on cyber infrastructure, making it an important target. Cyberattacks are also the type of warfare that can most directly impact people in allied countries, where there is no gunfire and the bombs are not being dropped. Therefore, cybersecurity is a concern to the whole world, which can learn from Ukrainian successes and Russian failures alike.
In this panel, Līga Raita Rozentāle (Senior Director of European Cybersecurity Policy, Microsoft), Marta Musidłowska (Digital Economy Analyst (online)) and Jeffrey Edmonds (Research Scientist at the Center for a New American Security) discuss:
-Microsoft’s efforts to help Ukrainian cybersecurity
-Mitigating the cyberattacks against Ukraine & Russian operational failures
-Evaluating Russian cyberattack capabilities. Is the West at risk?
-Balancing digital sovereignty and security cooperation
-The lessons learned from the war thus far
-Cloud storage & increasing nation-state attacks
-The West’s cybersecurity preparedness
-Using digital resources in reconstructing Ukraine after the war
-Ukrainian digital security in the future
Moderator: Kiryl Sukhotski, Regional Director for Europe and TV Production, RFE/RL
00:00 Introducing the topic & panelists
2:33 What was Microsoft’s response to the Ukraine crisis?
5:50 Why did Russia’s cyberattacks fail to cripple Ukraine?
7:40 What has the security & military community learned from Russian operational failures in cyberattacks against Ukraine?
12:20 How can issues of digital sovereignty be overcome in times of war?
18:00 What have we learned from Ukrainian cyber vulnerabilities? Data governance & cloud storage
20:17 How difficult is it to breach cloud storage?
20:40 Are nation-state attacks increasing?
21:15 Has the West had an adequate security response to Russian cyber threats?
22:50 How much cybersecurity assistance is the West providing to Ukraine?
24:30 The role of digital resources in reconstructing Ukraine after the war
28:50 Securing Ukraine digitally in the future
29:40 Should the West be concerned by Russian attacks on infrastructure?
30:52 How strong are Russia’s cyber forces?
33:05 What sort of cybersecurity cooperation is required between the EU-NATO and the public/private sectors?
35:29 What are the most significant ways that cyberattacks are being used in cohesion with conventional warfare?
37:35 Is China watching and learning from Russia’s mistakes?
38:30 Fighting & challenging cyber threats through big tech collaboration?
41:40 Is data governance the end of digital sovereignty? Should data governance be more centralized?
46:40 Are we totally unprepared for Web 3.0?
49:10 Are intelligence & security services worried about bad actors being much more able to use cybersecurity threats?