On February 24, Russia launched a war of aggression against Ukraine.
In the run-up to and even now this war has been flanked by cyber attacks on Ukrainian institutions such as government agencies, critical infrastructure and telecommunications providers.
The range of known cyber attacks ranges from disinformation campaigns to falsifying official websites (defacing) and paralyzing IT systems using so-called DDoS attacks to cyber espionage using targeted phishing and the destruction of civilian IT and communication systems using malware.
For the latter, malicious programs specially tailored to Ukraine were used, which are hidden behind names such as "WhisperGate" and "Hermetic Wiper".
These make IT systems permanently unusable,
for example by irretrievably deleting system files required for starting computers.
At the same time as the war began, the American company Viasat's KA-SAT satellite network, which is used in Ukraine for emergency communications, was also shut down.
This attack was felt all over the world, for example in Germany, where KA-SAT is used by Enercon to communicate with wind turbines.
Forensic investigations into the malicious programs deployed in Ukraine suggest that the cyber attacks have been in preparation since at least December of last year.
In fact, Ukraine was often the scene of similar attacks in previous years, for example in December 2015 when hackers paralyzed parts of the Ukrainian power grid, or in June 2017 when the NotPetya malware first spread to Ukraine and then around the world Damages estimated at least $10 billion.
State or state-affiliated hacker groups in Russia are generally considered to be the perpetrators of the current and previous attacks.
According to a study by the German Economic Institute, more than 80 percent of all significant cyber attacks on Ukraine since 2011 have come from Russia.
Cyber attacks on Georgia
The Russian-Georgian war of 2008 is considered to be the first war extensively supported by cyber attacks. This war followed a pattern that is amazingly similar to the current Russian-Ukrainian war.
Here, too, the starting point was a sometimes violent conflict between a more Western-oriented government and Russian-backed separatists in two regions bordering Russia.
On August 8, 2008, Russia intervened in the conflict and occupied a large part of Georgia.
The war ended after five days with many dead, injured and permanently displaced.
Georgia retained its state sovereignty but permanently lost control of the two regions.
Intense cyber attacks on Georgian facilities were noted some time before and during the war, as is now the case in Ukraine.
Here, too, there were disinformation campaigns, DDoS attacks, website defacement and attacks using malware and botnets.
Many of these attacks could be attributed to Russian hackers.
Government agencies, telecommunications providers, the media and financial institutions were also affected.