Further information appears on cyber attacks against Russia by mythical “volunteers – hackers” from Ukraine. Meanwhile, fresh publications show that Ukrainians are not necessarily behind all these actions. And not necessarily volunteers.
NSA in Estonia
On May 31, the 14th edition of Tallinn was held. conference "Cyber Conflict". Its organizer is established in 2008 as part of the Allied NATO Transformation Command Cyber Defence Cooperation Improvement Centre {C:$00FFFF} Cooperative Cyber defence Center for Excellence). Although this centre located in Estonia is an accredited structure with NATO, it may besides be composed of countries outside the alliance. In August 2021, Ukraine notified its accession, which in March 2022 gained support status.
This time, an interview given by an American general received a peculiar echo among the participants Paula Nakasone, Head of the United States Cybernetic Force Command and manager of the National safety Agency (NSA), National safety Agency). The NSA itself, at least since information disclosed by Edward Snowden, decoded as No specified Agency “There is no specified agency”, due to the fact that its way of working is completely unknown to the public, including the American one.
Cybernetic Offensive Actions
Interview from Nakasone conducted the British Sky News channel, whose journalists considered the NSA to be the world's most powerful cyberwar structure. In the interview, the American commander clearly confirms that the agency he led carried out a series of ‘offensive, defence and information operations’ against Russia for Ukraine. He's talked about it a lot before. inactive in 2018 stressed that the agency under its direction will carry out cyber-attacking activities not only on behalf of Washington itself, but besides ‘on behalf of the United States partners’.
Nakasone's far - reaching message for Sky News made the White home decide to explain it. She tried to soften her speech. Karine Jean-Pierre, Press Secretary of the Administration Joe Bidena. She said She said that the General was only curious in supporting Ukraine, although she acknowledged that the framework for this assistance was widening. Jean-Pierre, on the question of whether offensive cyber activities are not a denial of a policy of not engaging in a direct conflict between the United States and Russia, stated that “We don’t think so. We've talked about this. Our cyber safety experts have been talking about their position here. Nothing's changed. The answer is besides no’.
IT Army or cover for Western operations?
The rumors of U.S.-Ukrainian cooperation in the cybernetic sphere have already caused concern to the head of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), William Burns. He stated that cybernetic actions against Russia are an act of irresponsibility, are dangerous, and Ukraine, as he added, manages intelligence challenges perfectly on its own.
Meanwhile, any consider that Ukraine's alleged IT troops are actually utilized as a cover for the activities of services and Western entities directed against Russia. While all leaks are usually strictly controlled and neutralised, in respective cases the engagement of U.S. and British structures, specified as hacking, has been revealed. Officially, however, further cyber attacks are expected to be committed by hackers- volunteers from Kiev.
However, it is known that the widely available instruction material for the Ukrainian "IT Army" is available not only on its authoritative profile in Telegram, but besides in Google Docs. A DDoS attack tool, Death by 1000 needles (db1000n), can be found in GitHub repository. The second belongs to a Cyberhaven worker in the California Palo Alto, Bogdana Iwasko. His employer is officially active in the safety of computer networks.
Operations Hunt forward
The most interesting data on the actions of Americans on the Ukrainian side can be found in publications The British BBC of October 30. We read that in early December 2021 she went to Ukraine "a tiny group of American military with a young major at the head". It was to conduct a reconnaissance before the conflict on a larger scale.
As the BBC gen. William HartmanCommander of the United States National Cybernetic Expeditionary Forces, "She analysed the situation and said the group should stay. We immediately received a signal that ‘now in Ukraine is different’. alternatively of withdrawing the team, we have strengthened it”. The group grew to 40 people, becoming the largest American mission of its kind in the world. By January 2022, American specialists were to take over there ‘key items’ in the field of cybernetic activities.
In American terminology, missions of this kind are called Hunt forwardI mean, hunters. Nakasone talks about hunt forward operations (hunting operations). Their goal is to survey the computer networks of the state where they operate and find their weak spots that the opponent can use.
Since 2018, US missions of this kind have been in 20 partner countries – Europe, the mediate East and the Asia-Pacific region. There is no France, Germany or the United Kingdom among these countries. As it is not hard to guess, this is due not only to the fact that many of them have their own cybersecurity systems, but besides to the fear of giving Americans besides much information and thus influence on their national networks.
Experts warn
U.S.-developed cyber-arms of Ukraine rise concern not only in countries Ukraine disagreeable or critical of Washington. "The structure of IT troops and their increasing function creates a multitude of fresh problems for the global community in areas specified as the application of global law in cyberspace, normative behaviour of countries, impacts on civilian infrastructure, the ethics of IT companies with office outside Ukraine to name only any of them. Most or possibly all of these issues are not seen by the academic community and information safety circles, as well as by policy makers in the associate States of the European Union and NATO" – read in report Centre for safety Studies of the national University of Technology in Zurich. Only Swiss experts have noticed the problem so far. Politicians close their eyes to him, based solely on “Ukrainian” political correctness.
Mateusz Piskorski
