The Russia-Ukraine/U.S. geopolitical rivalry in Europe is now spilling onto a new battlefront—cyber space and critical infrastructure.
On February 12, Ukraine’s energy and coal industry ministry hinted that Russia was responsible for a series of cyber attacks against the country’s electricity distribution network when saboteurs hacked into the networks of the three power companies in Western Ukraine—Prykarpattya Oblenergo, Chernivtsi Oblenerho. and Kiev Oblenergo—on 23 December 2015, which disrupted energy supplies in eight provinces, affecting more than 80,000 people.
The hackers’ attack was well planned and coordinated—simultaneous to the disruption of power supplies, the saboteurs launched a sort of “distributed denial of …read more
Cyberspace: new arena for geopolitical rivalry
