The Ministry of Defense will hold a National Defense Hackathon to further fight against Russia in cyberspace
The Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine for Digital Development, Digital Transformations and Digitalization Oleg Hayduk announced the holding of the National Defense Hackathon at the initiative of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine in cooperation with the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine and the support of American partners.
The tasks of the hackathon define the coordination of the efforts of the cyber community within the framework of the implementation of the cyber defense tasks of Ukraine, the organizational and legal basis of the activities of the cyber defense forces, the creation and implementation of the leading solutions of the organized cyber struggle.
As the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine noted, over the past eight years, Russia has been waging a full-fledged cyberwar against Ukraine, constantly increasing its offensive actions, using new types of cyber weapons, and changing its tactics and mechanisms.
‘Today, cyberattacks are a full-fledged component of a conventional war against Ukraine, as evidenced by the correlation of events in cyberspace with military actions in the physical world. The coordination of the destructive activity of Russian military hackers with North Korean, Chinese and Iranian allies in attacks on Ukrainian critical information infrastructure is noted,’ – Oleg Hayduk emphasized.
It is worth noting that from the first days of the active phase of the armed confrontation with Russia, the domestic civil society was actively involved in the protection of Ukrainian cyberspace and counterattacks on the enemy’s infrastructure. Acting in disparate but highly specialized groups, a real partisan cyberwar against the aggressor country began, significant successes were achieved and myths about ‘invincible Russian hackers’ were broken.
However, according to Oleg Hayduk, the peculiarities of the existence of cyberspace disprove the idea of the expediency and effectiveness of harming the enemy under any conditions. The lack of coordination and a single plan during massive attempts to damage the information infrastructure of Russia, in many cases led to the unintentional disclosure of the relevant plans of Ukrainian cyber activists to the enemy and forced him to significantly strengthen his defensive positions. To a certain extent, it made it difficult to carry out coordinated measures in terms of time and purpose of the military cyber defense forces in the enemy’s cyberspace.
‘The creation of cyber troops has been identified by the Minister of Defense of Ukraine as one of the priority directions. Therefore, in order to unite the efforts of cyber volunteers and stimulate best practices in the field of cyber defense, holding the National Defense Hackathon in Ukraine is a timely and relevant step for further repelling Russian aggression and its allies in cyberspace. This will contribute to the support of the ground operation of the Armed Forces, will allow borrowing a new toolkit for cyber warfare and determine the most effective organizational and legal model of the state’s cyber defense,’ – summed up the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine.
The announcement was made during the 13th meeting of the National Cyber Security Cluster on the topic ‘Cyber security at the local level: regional challenges and border protection.’ The event is organized by the National Cyber Security Coordinating Center together with the US Civilian Research and Development Foundation with the support of the US State Department.
