“We did not see the great night of cyberwar that Russia wanted to strike at Ukraine, which was particularly resistant,” commented to AFP Ivan Fontarensky, technical director of cyberdefense at Thales.
“On February 23 (2022), concurrent with the attack on the ground, Russia attempted cyber blitzes, with apparently purpose-built unknown viruses, that targeted military targets, such as power plants , telecom and electrical infrastructure and even the Viasat satellite network at the very beginning of the conflict,” he explained.
Despite the impact of the attack on Viasat, a telecom network used by the army, “Ukraine was particularly resistant and even resilient in restoring impacted systems. We thought Russia was capable of carrying out such operations, but their attack failed. Not only has it made mistakes in its modus operandi, but since 2014 (and the first Russian incursion into Ukraine), Ukraine has learned to better protect itself, also thanks to cooperation with other allied countries”, detailed Ivan Fontarensky. “The attacks did damage but the Ukrainians managed very quickly to get the affected systems back on their feet.”