Ukraine deserves an IT army. We have to live with the fallout

March 4, 2022 – Published on VentureBeat

While you have to sympathize with Ukraine’s desire to do whatever it can to impede Russia, the Ukraine IT army initiative raises some major questions and could have serious unintended consequences, cyber experts told VentureBeat.

Ukraine’s IT army was announced last Saturday by vice prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov, two days after Russia’s unprovoked invasion of the country. The initiative has mainly focused on forcing Russian websites offline using distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. DDoS falls on the simpler end of the cyberattack spectrum, but can still be disruptive.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, the group expanded its tactics by targeting SIP servers, he said. The servers are used for internet-based voice calls, and are considered to be more difficult to defend against cyberattacks.

There’s the likelihood of their efforts interfering with intelligence collection by western nations, several experts said.

“With a public call to anyone willing to help Ukraine defend themselves from cyberattacks during a physical conflict, we have entered unprecedented territory,” said Drew Schmitt, principal threat intelligence analyst at GuidePoint Security.

Over the longer term, much will depend on how the international community responds to these events after the fact, Schmitt said.

For instance, it will be crucial to watch whether hactivism supporting Ukrainian cyber operations ends up being considered a criminal offense, as it normally would be, he said.

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