Analysis

Why Russia’s cyber-war in Ukraine has been intense, but not always effective

Shaping the battlefield. Darius, king of Persia, did it in 331bc, with caltrops strewn where he thought his enemy Alexander the Great would advance. The Allies did it in 1944, with dummy aircraft and landing craft intended to fool Germany’s high command into thinking their invasion of France would be in the Pas de Calais, …

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Is the Kremlin betting on Wildberries to consolidate e-commerce as foreign players exit Russia?

In the first nine months of 2022 Wildberries saw turnover increase 95% year on year to over RUB1 trillion (around $16.5bn). The online retailer has enjoyed a wildly successful couple of years, it now dominates the Russian market and is almost twice the size of its closest competitor. Indeed, while it may not be a household name in the West, Wildberries …

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How the war on Ukraine is reshaping Russia’s digital underground

At the beginning of the February invasion of Ukraine, there was widespread fear that cybercrime would be weaponized against Western organizations, especially given earlier examples of the Russian security services tolerating cybercriminals targeting the West (or even trying to recruit them for service). The US-Russian dialogue on cybercrime, which reportedly led to the arrest of …

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Where’s funding going in former Soviet states? Not Russia

When the Soviet Union splintered into separate nations in the early 1990s, it contained exactly zero hubs for venture-backed tech startups. Three decades later, of course, the picture is quite different. Metro areas in multiple former Soviet countries now have a rich concentration of tech founders. Capital has followed. But as one might expect, geopolitics …

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Russian microelectronics lags behind the world by 15 years

Lagging behind the world in the development of microelectronics for 15 years, Russia critically depends on foreign technologies in the design and production of relevant products, the authorities concede as the sanctions have made further development even more challenging.  The main issues of Russia’s microelectronics industry are listed in a draft policy document about industry development …

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Nationalising Russia’s Internet

Since the sanctions came down on Russia there has been a bonanza of M&A activity as those companies and oligarchs that have been included in the lists have had to dump their subsidiaries to protect them from being targeted. Often this means that individuals find themselves on a list, but their company is excluded as it …

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Fleeing Putin, Russian tech workers find a home in Armenia

In the weeks and months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Zvartnots International Airport in Armenia’s capital Yerevan was flooded with Russians leaving their country, among them a growing number of tech workers. Fearing flight cancellations, exit bans, and border controls, many booked their tickets at exorbitant prices, wiped their phones, and arrived in the small country nestled in …

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VK set to become Russia’s digital leader as crisis shakes up sector

Vladimir Kiriyenko, the new CEO of internet major VK Company, enjoyed a day in the limelight at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in June (SPIEF). “We have exceeded a monthly audience of 100 million and a daily audience of 50 million,” he told a room full of executives and officials. “For us, that’s a …

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Report: Lessons learned from cyber operations during the Russian invasion of Ukraine

What key lessons can we draw from the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine about the role of cyber operations in military conflict? How do Russian cyber operations differ in wartime compared to peacetime activity? And what cyber activity can we expect in the months ahead?  On 30 May, the European Cyber Conflict Research Initiative (ECCRI) …

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Why Russia’s giant cyber attack on Ukraine on Feb. 24 had relatively little impact

The Kremlin-backed cyberattack against satellite communications provider Viasat, which happened on Feb. 24 an hour before Russia invaded Ukraine, was “one of the biggest cyber events that we have seen, perhaps ever, and certainly in warfare,” according to Dmitri Alperovitch, a co-founder and former CTO of CrowdStrike and chair of security-centric think tank Silverado Policy …

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How Russia’s war on Ukraine and Kyiv’s call for help sparked off the first ever global cyber guerrilla

Weeks before tanks and soldiers marched on the cities of Ukraine, Russia carried out a series of successful cyberattacks against Ukraine, hitting critical infrastructure and financial institutions around the country with at least six unique strains of destructive wiper malware. Recent reporting confirms Russia’s GRU also carried out a massive cyberattack against Viasat, knocking its customers’ KA-SAT satellite …

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