The scale and pace of Russia’s wartime cyber operations have been unprecedented, but Ukraine has nonetheless provided the world with a masterclass in withstanding open cyber warfare through bolstered defences and improved resilience, according to a European Cyber Conflict Research Institute (ECCRI) report commissioned for the National Cyber Security Centre’s annual CyberUK event, which continues on Thursday 20 April in Belfast.

The wide-ranging report, The cyber dimensions of the Russia-Ukraine war, contains detailed analysis of the cyber security dimension to Russia’s war on Ukraine, offering potentially valuable new insights to learn from.

“We are very grateful to ECCRI for this important and valuable analysis of the cyber dimensions of the Russia-Ukraine conflict to date,” said NCSC operations director Paul Chichester.

“The report offers a range of helpful insights, not least around what Ukraine has taught us about the power of resilient systems in the face of sustained cyber attacks. As we look to the future during our CyberUK conference, this is a timely contribution to the debate on what we can learn from the conflict, as well as the limits to our current understanding.”

Security minister Tom Tugendhat added: “Putin’s illegal war isn’t just being fought on the ground. Ukraine’s protectors are also defending their country against unprecedented cyber attacks on a digital battlefield. This report has shone an important spotlight on a different kind of hostility, which the Ukrainians have responded to with exceptional resilience and determination. We must carefully assess its findings and learn the lessons it has to offer.”

The report is based on a workshop held under the Chatham House Rule earlier this year, at which participants explored angles such as the role played both by cyber criminals and political hacktivists – as detailed earlier this week in an NCSC alert on mercenary hacktivist groups.

It looks at how the lines between cyber criminal groups and political hacktivists on the Russian side have become blurred, with some groups claiming to be politically motivated, but then by their actions seeming more interested in stealing money than…