Digital Blood on Their Hands: The Ukraine Cyberwar Attacks

Cyberattacks are nothing particularly new to the world and Ukraine had suffered many such attacks by Russia over recent years. Russia had knowingly been exploiting Ukraine's digital vulnerabilities as a proving ground for nearly a decade. Malware such as Sandworm and BlackEnergy had caused untold damage to the Ukrainian population and government previously, which allowed Russia to perfect cyberattacks for further, more global events. Russia had been planting cyber sleeper digital cells for years, especially in the US and the UK.

Then, coincidently, the week after the Chinese Winter Olympic games had finished, Russia launched an all-out cyber offensive against 70 Ukrainian government websites. Owing to these being poorly--and insecurely--maintained, they toppled one by one, causing havoc and disruption to the Ukrainian government and to Ukraine's critical infrastructure. As Q said in James Bond: 'I can do more damage by breakfast sipping my Earl Grey tea with my keyboard than you ever can in the field.' Sadly, Q was right, as we witness daily. The keyboard and mouse have indeed become mightier than the sword.

The barrage of cyberattacks against Ukraine constitutes the first cyberwar by one nation against another. This attack crossed a very thin red line. That line had the hallmarks of a nation state, but had until now been confined to cyber criminal activities, immaterial of whom the perpetrators were. This, however, was now war. The cyberwar was simply a precursor, the softening of a country that would precede a kinetic war in which tens of thousands of people would lose their lives. This war was the first war for nearly 80 years that rang out deathly klaxons across Europe and the world.

Digital Blood on Their Hands addresses the issues that the digital world has created, covering the culpability, causal links and even liabilities that go towards these war crime atrocities, often too frightening to believe and also too compelling to dismiss. It tells a side to the world's first ever cyberwar that you would never otherwise see or possibly hear about.

數位世界所帶來的問題是《數位世界的血腥之手》所探討的議題，涵蓋了數位戰爭罪行的責任、因果關係以及相關的法律責任。這些戰爭罪行常常令人難以置信，但又無法忽視。本書揭示了世界上首次數位戰爭的一面，這是您可能從未見過或聽說過的。

網絡攻擊對世界來說並不是什麼新鮮事，近年來俄羅斯對烏克蘭發動了許多此類攻擊。俄羅斯有意利用烏克蘭的數位弱點作為實驗場地，已經有將近十年的時間。像Sandworm和BlackEnergy這樣的惡意軟體曾經對烏克蘭的人民和政府造成了無法估量的損害，這使得俄羅斯能夠完善進一步的全球性網絡攻擊。俄羅斯多年來一直在美國和英國等地植入網絡睡眠細胞。

然後，巧合的是，在中國冬季奧運會結束的一周後，俄羅斯對70個烏克蘭政府網站發動了全面的網絡攻擊。由於這些網站的維護工作不善且不安全，它們一個接一個倒下，給烏克蘭政府和關鍵基礎設施帶來了混亂和破壞。正如詹姆斯·邦德中的Q所說：“我只需在早餐時喝著伯爵茶，用鍵盤就能造成比你在戰場上更大的破壞。”可悲的是，Q是對的，我們每天都在目睹這一點。鍵盤和滑鼠確實比劍更強大。

對烏克蘭的一連串網絡攻擊構成了一個國家對另一個國家的首次網絡戰爭。這次攻擊跨越了一條非常微弱的紅線。這條紅線具有國家的特徵，但直到現在，它一直被限制在網絡犯罪活動中，不論肇事者是誰。然而，現在這是一場戰爭。這場網絡戰爭只是一場前奏，是對一個國家進行軟化的過程，而在這之後，數以萬計的人將喪生於一場動態戰爭中。這場戰爭是近80年來在歐洲和世界各地響起死亡警報的第一場戰爭。

Andrew Jenkinson is CEO of Cybersec Innovation Partners. 8 years Risk, compliance and Cyber Security experience. 20 years prior CEO of Charterhouse Risk and Compliance, led a total team from zero to over 500 resources of technical experts including leading a program for Sun Microsystems as a client for nearly ten years and other government contracts.
After publishing his first book, Stuxnet to Sunburst and Ransomware and Cybercrime, Andrew was subsequently made a Fellow of the Cyber Theory Institute and acknowledged as a Thought Leader in the field of Public Key Infrastructure, Domain Name System, both the fundamental basic of all security. He has also been named as one of the worlds leading 30 Cyber Security Experts by The European Institute of Risk.

Other books by this author:

Stuxnet to Sunburst: 20 Years of Digital Exploitation and Cyber Warfare
https: //www.routledge.com/Stuxnet-to-Sunburst-20-Years-of-Digital-Exploitation-and-Cyber-Warfare/Jenkinson/p/book/9781032068503

Ransomware and Cybercrime
https: //www.routledge.com/Ransomware-and-Cybercrime/Jenkinson/p/book/9781032235509

安德魯·詹金森（Andrew Jenkinson）是Cybersec Innovation Partners的首席執行官。他擁有8年的風險、合規和網絡安全經驗。在此之前，他曾擔任Charterhouse Risk and Compliance的首席執行官長達20年，帶領一支由零發展到超過500名技術專家的團隊，其中包括擔任Sun Microsystems的客戶近十年的項目以及其他政府合同。

在出版他的第一本書《從Stuxnet到Sunburst：20年的數字利用和網絡戰爭》以及《勒索軟體和網絡犯罪》之後，安德魯隨後成為Cyber Theory Institute的研究員並被公認為公鑰基礎設施和域名系統領域的思想領袖，這兩者是所有安全的基礎。他還被歐洲風險研究所評選為全球30位領先的網絡安全專家之一。

此作者的其他書籍包括：

《從Stuxnet到Sunburst：20年的數字利用和網絡戰爭》
https://www.routledge.com/Stuxnet-to-Sunburst-20-Years-of-Digital-Exploitation-and-Cyber-Warfare/Jenkinson/p/book/9781032068503

《勒索軟體和網絡犯罪》
https://www.routledge.com/Ransomware-and-Cybercrime/Jenkinson/p/book/9781032235509