Annie Fixler
Russia is increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence to refine its cyber espionage and enhance attack precision, warned Western officials at the Munich Security Conference this past weekend. Ihor Malchenyuk of Ukraine’s State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection (SSSCIP) reported that Russia has also been using AI to process the vast amounts of data on Ukraine’s military and ordinary citizens — data that its hackers have stolen over the past few years. Russia’s use of AI as part of its cyberattacks on Ukraine likely indicates what the United States and its partners will face in the coming years.
Russia’s Evolving Cyberattacks on Ukraine
Cyberattacks have long been a feature of Russia’s war in Ukraine. In December 2024, for example, Russian cyberattacks on Ukraine’s state registries disrupted essential services for weeks. Last year, Ukrainian cyber defenders identified and mitigated 1,042 cyber incidents targeting government agencies and critical infrastructure. These operations continue to include espionage, psychological warfare, and financial theft. What is novel is that Russian hackers are increasingly targeting digital spaces critical to the success of their military operations, the SSSCIP reports. Previous reports, such as a July 2022 assessment from the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, noted a convergence in the timeline of cyber and kinetic attacks, but SSSCIP’s assessment is that there is also a convergence of mission. Russian hackers have also figured out how to compromise supposedly secure communication channels. Google researchers revealed on February 19 that Russian military intelligence cyber operatives have infiltrated Signal messenger accounts used by Ukrainian troops, including by working with Russian frontline military personnel to exploit captured devices, allowing them to monitor battlefield communications. Signal is widely regarded as a gold standard for secure messaging because of its end-to-end encryption and minimal data collection. Yet Russian hackers discovered workarounds. Google warned that the tactics Russia used to target Signal will likely “grow in prevalence in the near-term and proliferate to additional threat actors and regions outside the Ukrainian theater of war.”
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