Russia Adjusts Cyber Strategy for the Long Haul in War With Ukraine

In a new development in Ukraine, Russian cyber units are beginning to focus on Ukrainian military objectives rather than on strategic civilian targets.

Russian operatives are targeting military computers and mobiles in particular ahead of a summer kinetic offensive that aims to take reclaimed Ukrainian territory. This change in cyber strategy is due to a shift in priorities, according to a report by the Royal United Services Institute.

Initially, Russia was focused on launching attacks against civilian infrastructure in the region, though this was on the assumption that the war would be short term. 

"Moscow has rebalanced its overarching concept of operations to emphasize targets that can provide more direct and tangible battlefield advantages to its conventional forces," said Dan Black, manager of cyber espionage analysis at Google Cloud's Mandiant and author of the report. "Much Western analysis to date has fixated on Russia's highly visible opening cyber offensive, the merits of its approach, and the potential for a renewed destructive campaign of a similar nature against Ukrainian critical infrastructure."

The new tactics Russia is utilizing include hacking the devices used by Ukrainian soldiers, social engineering attacks to penetrate Ukrainian command and control systems, and compromising webcams in population centers to locate Ukrainian military equipment.