Tag Archive for: Invasion

The lessons military planners are learning from the Ukraine invasion and what it means if the UK went to war with Russia | World News

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Throughout the Cold War, Britain’s military planners thought long and hard about what was needed to beat the Soviets if World War Three ever broke out.

Assuming both sides weren’t annihilated by nuclear weapons, they assumed a Soviet invasion would lead to a war in western Europe, and trained and equipped UK forces would need to counter that threat.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was believed that the threat was no longer there, and came from other places.

But the invasion of Ukraine has changed all of that. While analysts say a direct conflict between NATO and Russia is unlikely, it is possible – particularly in the Baltic states, or Finland.

The Ukraine war is providing a golden opportunity for British and NATO military planners to observe Russia fighting on the battlefield and to plan accordingly. Here, according to former Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) head Professor Michael Clarke and retired Air Vice Marshal Sean Bell, are a few of the lessons the MoD will be taking on board.

1. The days of purely expeditionary conflicts are over

For years, since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the belief was that Western armed forces would only ever have to take part in what was known as ‘expeditionary’ wars. These are conflicts involving a strong military force going into a situation in which it has superiority, so it can win easily – for example the Gulf and Iraq wars and conflicts in Sierra Leone and Kosovo.

Now, the threat of an encounter with Russia – regarded as a military peer – is very present and it is arguable the British and other allied forces are not yet equipped for that.

Prof Clarke, former director of the RUSI and a fellow of Kings College London, told Sky News: “With British military planners … the idea of having to go all-out to fight a proper big war was ‘we’ll only do it with the US and certainly won’t be doing it for, let’s say, the next 10 years’.

“24 February showed that… Russia is now a manifest threat and will be for as long as Putin is in power and probably his successor as well. It is THE problem of European stability and security.”

Expeditionary wars of which the 2003 invasion of Iraq was one will no longer be the only type of conflict planners have to prepare for. Pic: AP
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Expeditionary wars, of which the 2003 invasion of Iraq was…

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US and allies blame Russia for Viasat hack ahead of Ukraine invasion

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WASHINGTON — The U.S., Canada and European powers this week blamed Russia for a February cyberattack that disrupted internet service for tens of thousands of people in the critical moments that preceded the latest invasion of Ukraine.

The Feb. 24 attack on Viasat Inc., a California-based provider of high-speed satellite broadband services and secure networking systems covering military and commercial markets worldwide, was meant to cripple Ukrainian command and control as Russian forces advanced, U.S. and U.K. officials said May 10. The attack spilled over, impacting wind farms and internet users in central Europe as well.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday condemned the hack, describing Russia’s alleged belligerence in cyberspace as “irresponsible” and “destructive.” A statement from the European Union similarly described the attack as “unacceptable” and “indiscriminate.”

The bloc said it would consider additional steps to “prevent, discourage, deter and respond to such malicious behavior in cyberspace.”

While the U.S. and others did not tie the digital assault to any one specific element of the Russian government, Estonia pinned the blame on Russia’s infamous intelligence directorate, known as GRU.

“These cyberattacks run counter to international law and, therefore, we are unequivocally condemning them,” Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets said in a statement. “The timing of this attack on 24 February, when a wide-scale military attack against Ukraine began, is significant and shows once again that cyberattacks are an integral part of how Russia wages war.”

Moscow has historically denied such operations.

The explicit attribution is the result of new intelligence, according to the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and comes as allied cyber leaders meet in Newport, South Wales, for a conference on shared threats.

“This is clear and shocking evidence of a deliberate and malicious attack by Russia against Ukraine, which had significant consequences on ordinary people and businesses in Ukraine and across Europe,” U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.

Viasat on Tuesday said it…

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Russia pummelled by pro-Ukrainian hackers following invasion

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LONDON (FINANCIAL TIMES) – For years, Dmitriy Sergeyevich Badin sat atop the FBI’s most wanted list. The Russian government-backed hacker has been suspected of cyber attacks on Germany’s Bundestag and the 2016 Olympics, held in Rio de Janeiro.

A few weeks into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, his own personal information – including his email and Facebook accounts and passwords, mobile phone number and even passport details – was leaked online.

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Canada on high alert for ransomware attacks amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

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Canada went on high alert for ransomware attacks on Feb. 24, the day Russia invaded Ukraine.

Canada’s Communications Security Establishment (CSE) warned Canadian banks, power utilities and other major firms that day “to take immediate action and bolster (your) online cyber defences.”

Ransomware attacks were already a growing threat to Canadian businesses, hospitals, government agencies and other organizations before Russia-based cybercriminals loyal to Moscow were given additional incentive to attack victims in Western countries that sanctioned Russia to reverse its invasion of Ukraine.

In a landmark survey of Canadian employers conducted last year, Telus Corp., the telecom giant, reported that 83 per cent of the 463 Canadian businesses and other organizations participating in the survey had experienced an attempted ransomware attack.

More than two-thirds were unable to thwart the attempt and suffered the attack. About 44 per cent of those victims paid the ransom demanded by the cybercriminals who had encrypted their data and effectively frozen their computer systems.

The average ransom paid was $140,000. Ransom paid by large organizations reaches into the tens of millions of dollars.

And cybercrime victims in the Telus survey calculate that the ransom they paid was only 10 per cent of their total costs in recovering from an attack.

The additional costs include delays or cancellations of plans to boost the efficiency of IT systems, and loss of employee productivity.

And just over half of respondents who were attacked reported permanent full or partial loss of their data.

We know from reports by the federal Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (Cyber Centre) and other international cybersecurity agencies that data lost in cyberattacks is often posted on open-source websites for all to see.

That stolen data is used in business espionage and intellectual property theft; by other ransomware groups who use it to attack the victim again; and is shared with intelligence agencies of governments hostile to the West.

The threat from ransomware attackers described in this space in June 2021 has since grown worse.

By that point, hundreds of North American organizations large and small…

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