Thread by @FletcherRussia

Today's @FletcherRussia Eurasia Club luncheon series is led by @shakirov2036, Visiting Scholar @FletcherSchool and a researcher focusing on international cyber policy and arms control issues. #AcademicTwitter

"Since 2014, Ukraine was testing ground for cyber warfare and included multiple forms of attacks. Prominent was the 2015-2016 attack on power grids. This was among a small selection of attacks that disrupted physical systems in Western Ukraine,": @shakirov2036 #RussiaUkraineWar

"In Russia, there was no discussion of cyber security consequences if a war starts. Ukraine faced various attacks including viper attacks, and multiple government websites were defaced. This attack impacted provision of financial & govt services to public,": @shakirov2036

"There ere many data breaches (some authentic) and some fake. There are Russian actors pretending to steal info on Ukraine, and Ukraine's dealing with the West to create some sort of psychological impact,": @shakirov2036 @FletcherSchool

"#Cyber attacks did not play any major impact and there are several potential explanations. Ukraine was ready for the #Russian cyber attacks and foreign partners boosted Ukraine's cyber defenses,:" @shakirov2036 @FletcherSchool #AcademicTwitter

"It was very difficult to align cyber attacks with kinetic attacks for Russia and some Russian attacks were very well co-ordinated but I am skeptical about these beliefs,": @shakirov2036 @FletcherSchool #AcademicTwitter #CyberAttack

"Russia was caught off-guard by cyber war and not ready. Starting from day 1, Russia became the target of cyber attacks, which was unprecedented,": @shakirov2036 #RussiaUkraineWar

"#DDoS attack was not common but was used to take down systems. For a few days, #Ukrainian activists targeted factories, disrupting their production. In the major scheme of things, these are not consequential but were smaller developments,:" @shakirov2036 @FletcherSchool

"Number of scam calls from Ukraine allegedly have increased. There was a short report about scam calls from the commonwealth of independent nations including #Ukraine️ to #Russia,:" @shakirov2036 @FletcherSchool #AcademicTwitter

"At the beginning of November, Russian officials said they were unsure if Russia withstood all cyber attacks but there was no irreparable damage. This was a reflection that Russia was successful in some ways," @shakirov2036 @FletcherSchool #RussiaUkraineWar

"There is a 📈Private-Public partnership in #Russia now. Previously, there was a limited context in this partnership but private firms are getting involved in assessing cyber threats,": @shakirov2036 @FletcherSchool #CyberAttack

"There is a greater role for the ministry of #digital development and is becoming prominent in the space.
There is a remarkable embrace of Russian hackers. After the 2016 elections, too many activities were ascribed to Russian hackers and it had become a joke,": @shakirov2036

.@shakirov2036 shares a list of hackers and Russian non-state actors, most likely affiliated with some government services, targeting Ukraine's digital ecosystems amid the #RussiaUkraineWar @FletcherSchool

List shared by @shakirov2036 #AcademicTwitter.

"Lot of foreign assistance including U.S. support to #Ukraine and other countries' infra being used to counter Russian cyber attacks on #Ukraine️,": @shakirov2036 #CyberAttack

@FletcherSchool

"We have cyber volunteers in the IT Army of Ukraine not just from Russia, and Ukraine but Belarus, Moldova, and @NATO countries as well,": @shakirov2036 #RussiaUkraineWar @FletcherSchool

.@shakirov2036 talks about obscure comments from Nakasone on defensive and offensive operations in the interest of Ukraine but states no additional context was given. "This led to comments in Russia on the U.S. involvement in #RussiaUkraineWar"

news.sky.com/story/us-milit…

Lessons from @shakirov2036's reflections:

1. Many opportunities to experiment to limit damage and offense/defensive measures.
2. Haven't seen if cyber has changed things on-ground.
3. Limited significance of norms of state behavior.
4. Spotlight on the role of defense.

"It will be fair to say norms are not being followed equally by every state,": says @shakirov2036, concluding his Eurasia Club luncheon session @FletcherSchool