Western coalition supplying tech to Ukraine prepared for long war | Computer Weekly

"Although €1.3bn may be small compared with Ukraine's military budget, the equipment - provided with the support of Western governments and companies - has been critical to allow Ukraine's government and institutions to continue functioning under Russian attack. Heli Tiirmaa-Klaar, chair of the IT Coalition Steering Group, told Computer Weekly that with peace talks floundering in Moscow, the group is prepared for a long game,"

"Russia's attempts to use "well crafted" cyber attacks to destabilise Ukraine just before troops crossed the border were largely unsuccessful, she told Computer Weekly. Speaking ahead of a talk at the SANS CyberThreat Summit in London, Tiirmaa-Klaar said that Russian attacks included a widely reported attempt to deploy wiper software to destroy data on Ukraine's critical computer systems. Ukraine had the support networks in place to patch the zero-day vulnerabilities used in the attack in a matter of hours."

"An attack by Russia on Ukraine's train network the day before Russian troops crossed the boarder also failed, said Tiirmaa-Klaar. "By the time the invasion happened, and you needed to evacuate, the trains were running again," she said. The defence was good enough and resilient enough, and that is why we could not see major cyber disruptions during the invasion."

A coalition provided more than €1.3bn in telecommunications, information technology and high-tech equipment to Ukraine since the outbreak of the conflict. The equipment enabled government and institutions to continue operating under sustained Russian attack. The coalition plans multi-year support, prepared to maintain Ukraine's technology infrastructure for five to ten years. Pre-invasion Russian cyber operations, including attempts to deploy wiper malware and exploit zero-day vulnerabilities, were largely unsuccessful because support networks patched vulnerabilities within hours. A separate attack on the train network failed and services were restored in time to support evacuations and critical operations.

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