However, the study, released by Microsoft on Wednesday, suggests that the government of President Vladimir Putin has achieved more than many expected with the disinformation campaign to create a Russia-friendly narrative of the war, including the assumption that the United States secretly produced biological weapons inside Ukraine. The report is the latest attempt by many groups, including US intelligence agencies, to understand the interaction of a brutal physical warfare with a parallel – and often coordinated – cyber fight. It showed that Ukraine was well prepared to repel cyber attacks, having endured them for many years. This is at least partly due to a well-established warning system from private sector companies, including Microsoft and Google, and preparations that included the transfer of much of Ukraine’s most important systems to the cloud to servers outside Ukraine. Russia’s cyber-attacks and disinformation campaigns show that only 29 percent of the attacks violated targeted networks – in Ukraine, the United States, Poland and the Baltic states. However, it points to a more successful ongoing effort to dominate the information war, in which Russia has blamed Washington and Kyiv for launching the now-raging conflict in eastern and southern Ukraine. The war is the first full-scale battle in which traditional and side-by-side cyber weapons have been used, and the fight is under way to explore unprecedented dynamics between the two. So far, very little of this momentum has developed as expected. Initially, analysts and government officials were shocked by the absence of mutilating Russian attacks on Ukraine’s electricity grid and communications systems. In April, President Biden’s national cyber’s director, Chris Inglis, said the “question of the moment” was why Russia had not played “a very important cyber game, at least against NATO and the United States.” He assumed that the Russians thought they were heading for a quick victory in February, but “detached” when the war effort met with obstacles. A Microsoft report said Russia had launched a major cyber-attack on February 23, the day before the physical invasion. This attack, using malware called FoxBlade, was an attempt to use “wiper” software that erased data on government networks. At about the same time, Russia attacked the Viasat satellite communications network, hoping to mutilate the Ukrainian army. “I think we were one of the first to witness the first shootings on February 23,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft president. “It was a terrible, intense, even savage set of attacks, attacks that started with some form of wiper software, attacks that are actually coordinated by various parts of the Russian government,” he added at a forum in Ronald on Wednesday. Presidential Foundation and Reagan Institute in Washington. But many of the attacks were averted or there was enough surplus to integrate into the Ukrainian networks that the efforts caused little damage. The result, Mr Smith said, is that the attacks have been little reported. UPDATED June 22, 2022, 10:06 p.m. ET In many cases, Russia has coordinated the use of cyber weapons with conventional attacks, including downing the computer network of a nuclear power plant before moving with its troops to take over, Mr Smith said. Microsoft officials declined to say which factory Mr Smith was referring to. While much of Russia’s cyber activity has focused on Ukraine, Microsoft has detected 128 network intrusions in 42 countries. Of the 29 percent of Russian attacks that have successfully penetrated a network, Microsoft has found that only a quarter of them result in data theft. Outside of Ukraine, Russia has focused its attacks on the United States, Poland and two aspiring NATO members, Sweden and Finland. Other members of the alliance were also targeted, especially as they began supplying Ukraine with more weapons. These breaches, however, have been limited to surveillance – indicating that Moscow is trying to avoid bringing NATO nations directly into the fight through cyber attacks, as well as refraining from physical attacks in those countries. However, Microsoft, other technology companies and government officials have said that Russia has combined these penetration attempts with a widespread effort to spread propaganda around the world. Microsoft has seen an increase in the consumption of Russian propaganda in the United States in the first weeks of the year. It peaked at 82 percent just before the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, with 60 million to 80 million monthly page views. That number, Microsoft said, competed with page views on the largest traditional multimedia sites in the United States. One example Mr. Smith cited was Russian propaganda inside Russia urging its citizens to get vaccinated, while English-language messages spread anti-vaccine content. Microsoft also watched the rise of Russian propaganda in Canada in the weeks leading up to a convoy of truckers protesting vaccination orders trying to shut down Ottawa and New Zealand ahead of protests there against public health measures aimed at combating it. “It is not a case of consumption after the news. “It’s not even a post-news reinforcement effort,” Smith said. “But I think it is fair to say that it is not just this boost that precedes the news, but it is probably trying to create and influence the creation of the news of the day.” Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine and a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, noted that while private companies may monitor Russian intelligence efforts within the United States, US intelligence services are restricted by laws that prevent them from being tracked by US intelligence. networks. “There is a gap, and I think the Russians know that, and it has enabled them to take advantage of an opening in our system,” said King, who also spoke at the Reagan Institute. A provision in this year ‘s defense policy bill that would be considered by Congress would require the Department of Homeland Security and its military cousin, the United States Cyber Command, to report to Congress every two years on election security, including its efforts. Russia and other foreign powers to influence the Americans. “Ultimately, the best defense is for our people to be better consumers of information,” King said. “We need to do a better job of educating people to be better consumers of information. I call it digital literacy. “And we have to teach fourth- and fifth-graders how to tell the difference between a fake site and a real site.”
