Tag Archive for: Army

How Ukraine built a volunteer IT army from scratch


As Russian bombs began to fall across Ukraine in February 2022, many faced a daunting choice: stay and fight or flee for safety. Among them was Ted, a tech entrepreneur living in Kyiv (who is using a pseudonym for security concerns). Initially taking his family to safety in Lviv, Ted wanted to fight. Lacking military skills, Ted like many other Ukrainians who had a tech background wanted to contribute on other battle fronts.

His wife was a public servant who was well-connected with the Ukrainian government. Through conversations with the Ministry of Digital Transformation, an idea arose to leverage people with tech backgrounds to defend the country on the cyber battlefield. What followed was the historic formation of a volunteer hacker army fighting on Ukraine’s behalf – the world’s first such group in cyber warfare.

The IT Army of Ukraine emerged just two days after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 as Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov issued a rallying cry to all volunteers willing to join the hacker ranks of the IT army to help defend Ukraine. He proclaimed, “We continue to fight on the cyber front.”

At its peak, the volunteer IT army’s Telegram channel reached around 300,000 members in March 2022.

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Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov tells about the achievements of the IT Army of Ukraine during the results of his agency over 2023. Photo: IT Army of Ukraine/FB

Fedorov’s call to action resonates with the historical appeal of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II – Winston Churchill’s famous directive to the SOE was to “set Europe ablaze,” inspiring a similar spirit of resistance in the digital domain.

“We tried to activate every part of society to resist Russia’s war,” Ted said of the early days of the war. Ukrainian officials and volunteers wanted to see how they could leverage the highly talented population of our society, “keeping in mind our software developers and people in the IT sector,” said Ted.

In the early days, organizers focused on the basics, such as creating a Telegram channel and doing the groundwork to get operations going….

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Army Chief Emphasises Importance of Media to Military Operations – Voice of Nigeria






















Army Chief Emphasises Importance of Media to Military Operations – Voice of Nigeria

















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Guam Army National Guard hosts Guam Cybersecurity Summit > Andersen Air Force Base > Features




On Nov. 6-7, 2023, representatives from local and national agencies have visited the University of Guam lecture hall and gymnasium to partake in the 2024 Central Pacific Cybersecurity Summit.

“Over the next two days, we are going to lean on one another, exchange ideas, and use our collective expertise to fortify our island and our regions’ ability to not only respond but to recover from a cybersecurity attack,” said Lou Leon Guerrero, governor of Guam. “Because to simply say it’s a priority is an understatement. It is mission-critical to our island’s defense and our nation’s defense that we get this done.”

The goal is to execute a whole-of-government and community approach by providing opportunities for several different local and national agencies to communicate, exchange and strengthen strategies and ideas that will bolster the different levels of cybersecurity, while also deterring adversaries and promoting integrated deterrence.

“We recognize the vulnerability and weaknesses of our cybersecurity program, so we came up with the Central Pacific Cybersecurity summit to gather all the experts that can help us solidify and prevent future cyber-attacks,” Leon Guerrero said. “We want to protect and make a solid plan of actions to strengthen our cybersecurity and cybersecurity deterrence.”

Agencies such as U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM), U.S. Cyber Command (USCC), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), FBI, Guam Homeland and Civil Defense, Guam Office of Technology (OTECH), public utilities, internet service providers, Joint Region Marianas (JRM), Andersen Air Force Base, Marine Corp Base Camp Blaz, U.S. Coast Guard and more attended the summit sharing information and resources they had to offer.

Jennilyn LaBrunda, CISA cybersecurity advisor, discussed the resources available on the CISA website. Adam Dickinson and Robert Schuett of Google Mandiant, discussed the performance of Intelligence Led Security.

“This is just one of many ways that we can combine the efforts of our friends to come up with a unified plan to address every evolving threat of cyber-attacks.” said…

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The People’s Liberation Army: So You Think It’s Just a Paper Tiger?


I keep hearing these days that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is a “paper tiger,” 

Thus there’s no need to worry about an attack on Taiwan. And anyway, the United States has plenty of time to get ready before the PLA is a real threat – rather than just a “near-peer competitor.”

The PLA’s problems? To name a few: no recent combat experience, corruption, too many “only children” in the ranks. The Chinese Navy can’t conduct combat operations in distant seas and is not able to master “amphibious operations” – supposedly the most complex and hardest of all military operations. 

Even China’s leaders complain about “peace disease.” The PLA hasn’t fought a war for decades. And too many senior officers can’t manage the demands of modern high-tech warfare.

Maybe so. But in the last 30 years, the People’s Republic of China has pulled off the biggest, fastest military build-up since World War II. China’s defense budgets are much greater than the roughly $220 billion USD it claims and possibly exceed US defense spending. 

The Chinese Navy is already larger than the US Navy and the gap will widen. China is launching five ships for every one the USN puts in the water. It has put more tonnage and missiles to sea as well. 

Beijing lavishes similar attention upon its air force, ground forces, cyber and electronic warfare. And its missile capabilities, including hypersonic weaponry, probably exceed US capabilities. Its nuclear weapons build-up has finally got even the China experts worried. They dismissed it for years.

Sri Lanka lets a Chinese ship conduct research despite spying concerns. (Screenshot from WION broadcast via X on October 1, 2023.)
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‘Eyes Wide Open’

China knows its problems but it has clear objectives. Defeating US forces is objective number one. And it trains hard to achieve these goals. Its ships are not rust buckets. Nor do they collide with other ships or burn up pier side every so often.

Yes, the PLA would have a harder time attacking Des Moines, Iowa, but that’s not the point.

It’s true that Chinese conventional combat power – or “power projection” – drops off rapidly beyond, say, 1000 miles from the Chinese border. But…

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