Cyber War In Perspective: Russian Aggression Against Ukraine

A collection of good articles by many friends and colleagues at the CCDCOE in Tallinn, Estonia.

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Introduction: Cyber War In Perspective: Russian Aggression Against Ukraine

In the foreword by Sven Sakkov Director, NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, I found the following synopsis:

In brief, the book reflects several mutually reinforcing reasons why we did not witness large-scale or massive cyber attacks with destructive effects:

• Espionage and information campaigns conducted through cyberspace trumped other considerations for the Russian side;

• It is reasonable to achieve results with less resources and effort involved, i.e. if a cable can be cut physically, there is no need to use sophisticated cyber attacks;

• Both sides in the conflict have shown a considerable ability to control the escalation of the conflict. The cyber domain did not witness large scale warfighting, but neither did the domain of air after the tragedy of MH17;

• Ukraine did not offer very lucrative targets for destructive cyber attacks.

The second bullet, “if a cable can be cut physically, there is no need to use sophisticated cyber attacks” has been a point of my presentations since this whole crisis started.  Our reliance on high-tech, high-cost and overly complex weapons, methods and processes  exposes our soft, low-tech underbelly.

I could nitpick this entire book to pieces, but these type studies are so necessary, I will only write two very short paragraphs.

My take, only Chapters 2 (Giles), 5 (Libicki), 9 (Maurer) and 10 (Jaitner) really address the overall shortfall of NATO, and especially US, doctrine. All three properly say that cyberplay in Ukraine was negligible. I’ve heard and read cyber ‘experts’ say otherwise; I think they’re smoking dope and need a drug test.

Margarita Jaitner takes the next step and properly categorizes cyber as subordinate to information in Russian doctrine, in Chapter 10.

At 175 pages it is good reading material for students contemplating cyber operations in future conflicts, but one must remember that cyber is a means and not an end, and information is the ultimate objective.

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