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Strategic Response to the Russian Cyber Strategy in Ukraine

The proliferation of cyber weapons in state versus state conflicts continue to make complex the art of warfare today. Many states, including Russia, have continued to rely on virtual tools either as disruptive mechanisms against other states or active propaganda machines to create confusion or disrupt the local election processes of other nations. With regard to the case study scenario, the strategic end-state would be to terminate the consistent cyber onslaught of the Russian state on Ukraine. The technicalities of virtual crime make pronouncements on criminal culpability less than certain. However, to get to the desired end-state, a number of strategies that target the Russian internet domain, undersea and land cables, wireless communication, radar surveillance and cyber weapons targeting would be the most plausible solutions. This essay looks at some of these strategic tenets and how their application could help resolve the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and de-escalate a conflict heightened by the ruthless Russian dark cyber onslaught.

Desired Strategic End-state

In the case scenario, one of the major hurdles to the Ukrainian electoral process and democratic institution is the hiring of proxies and the targeting of the Central Electoral Commission to scuttle the electoral process and make the citizens lose hope in their electoral process (Thornton & Miron, 2020). The contestation of the political environment, coupled with the cyber-attacks on the country’s economic and utility infrastructure, make the virtual criminal enterprise a priority to be addressed. The strategic end-state in this scenario then is to terminate the cyber onslaught that the Russian state has waged on Ukraine and the interests of the Western countries within the nation. Bringing down the cyber-attacks would help in reducing the propaganda vehicle and strategic weapon that Russia uses either directly or through proxies to justify their military action in Ukraine. This desired end-state would be an ideal state with regard to the complex nature of cyber-crimes and serve as a blueprint for dealing with future rogue actions of states that use cyber warfare as a hurdle to the progress of other nations.

Strategic Tenets

Removal of top Russian Domain   

Of all the strategic tenets, this may perhaps look the most radical. The leading Russian domain on the internet is .ru. Removing this domain would deal a near fatal blow to Russian cyber operations and scuttle their organizational and coordination capacity. Most of the hacking and infiltration that are sanctioned by the Russian state are hosted on this domain (Thornton & Miron, 2020). This means that it is the bloodline for the kinds of activities that were directly responsible for interfering in the Ukrainian situation. The removal of this domain would send a strong message that the support for coordinated cyber hacks and attacks would not be tolerated from any entity, especially when the culprits are rogue states.

Severance of Undersea and Land Cables

The reality of globalization means that virtual communication has been expanded all over the world. One of the principal ways through which this connectivity has been attained is through the laying of land and undersea cables. The Russian territory is no exception. Severing the already laid cables that enable connectivity with Russia to be possible would also be an ideal start to normalizing relations and halting their cyber-criminal activities. This would also importantly deny the criminals who operate within the Russian territory at the behest of the Russian government to get cut-off from the strategic and operational capability to continue normal operations. This action would also cut the state off the modern connectivity like 4G and 5G that are necessary for launching quick and efficient cyber warfare activities.

Jamming of Wireless Communication

One of the principal ways through which communication is possible within the context of the virtual world is wireless communication. Jamming of wireless communication gadgets through a deliberate interference with the signals would scuttle efforts of the state to launch cyber operations that target Ukrainian installations like their power grids and electoral systems. This jamming would also make it much more difficult to communicate with those who are needed to carry out the criminal cyber-attacks through proxies. When it gets impossible to coordinate these cyber activities through wireless communication, it gets much more difficult to organize and carry out attacks that target other states.

Crippling of Radar and Satellite Surveillance

Radar and satellite surveillance has emerged as a critical asset for states to carry out both surveillance and launch targeted attacks at foreign installations sometimes without getting detected. To manage these radar and satellite enabled cyber-attacks, the chief strategy would be to cripple the radar and satellite surveillance so that communication and coordination of these cyber-attacks would be scuttled. One of the principal ways through which this would happen would be to do away with the anonymity under which the cyber-attacks are done so that a clear trail can be followed.

Triggering of Cyber Weapons  

One of the strategic ways of handling this crisis would be to treat Russia to the same medicine that they treat Ukraine with. That would involve unleashing cyber weapons to take down some of their critical infrastructure including gas, oil and power. This would hamper the capability of the state to carry out some of its strategic cyber-attacks.

Literature Review

Cyber warfare has become a global menace with the increased globalization (Ajir & Vailliant, 2018). In this case scenario, this fact is reiterated by the fact that the attacks that Russia staged on the Ukrainian state ended up affecting not only the infrastructural and electoral system of Ukraine but also the interests of the Western nations within the Ukrainian territory. The effect of these attacks on the other countries far removed from Ukraine in geography, demonstrate that with increased globalization, there arises the need to implement an all-concerted effort against cyber warfare (Kimani et al. 2019).

The need to control and bring down cyber-attacks is reinforced by the fact that it is very complex to control cyber activity and reign in the culprits because of the loose application of laws that are made to fight cybercrime or the complexity of attempting to implement these laws across different boundaries. Different nations have different cyber laws. It is very difficult to harmonize some of these laws. Even more importantly, it often gets hazy to say for certain that a particular group is responsible for cyber-attacks and institute retaliation measures. It can also often be difficult to gauge the efficacy of these retaliatory measures like economic and diplomatic sanctions (Thornton & Miron, 2019).

In conclusion, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict is a situation that has been exacerbated by complex military and cyber strategy. The Russian side has often used weapons of cyber warfare to justify military interventions and undermine the country’s electoral system. These cyber-criminal activities can be met by removing the Russian internet domain, severance of cables, jamming of wireless communication among other measures. It is these that would terminate the persistent cyber onslaught of Russia and help restore normal relations in the region.