David Hollingworth
As the saying goes, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” In this instance, however, it’s more a case of “when life gives you harsh lessons in cyberwarfare, you should turn them into real-world training exercises”.
That’s pretty much the backstory of a new training service recently announced by cyber security firm Cyber Ranges, which is based on the lived experience of Ukraine’s Computer Emergency Response Team, CERT-UA.
Russia’s build-up and execution of its so-called Special Military Operation – largely ‘special’ these days for being the most costly and destructive conflict on European soil since the Second World War – saw a wave of cyber-attacks unleashed across NATO countries and allies, but no nation has borne the brunt of those attacks like Ukraine has.
Just months after the Russian invasion, Ukraine was already facing unprecedented malicious cyber activity both in terms of its scope and sophistication, and it had already been engaged in defensive cyber operations since as early as 2013. This ongoing activity has the goal of degrading and disrupting both domestic and military targets, while also discrediting the Ukrainian government.