Ukraine to counter cyber attacks from Russia, the key to "cyber war" is "distributed network"

The invasion of Ukraine on the morning of February 24 (US time) by Russian tank troops made the world of the net turbulent, but in some areas it was silent. Trioran, a major Ukrainian Internet service provider (ISP), was temporarily out of service. It is said that the power outage that occurred in the northeast of Kharkov, which was the target of Russia, had an effect.

The internet environment was restored the next day. However, the results of the Internet Disconnection Detection and Analysis (IODA) released by the Georgia Institute of Technology's affiliated Internet connectivity observation facility reveal that it suffered minor obstacles throughout the week. It is said that there was a poor internet connection in Donetsk and Lugansk, which Russia occupied and unilaterally declared independence.

Since the beginning of the war, Russian-backed hackers have feared that Ukraine may be disrupted. Ukraine has had its power network down in 2015.

Related article: What is meant by the "Ukrainian power outage" that occurred at the end of the year for the second consecutive year

Russian cyber forces have launched a decentralized denial of service (DDoS) attack on the Ukrainian government's website since February 23, and the concentration of pseudo-access has caused the server to puncture (Ukraine's). IT troops are embarking on a similar counter-offensive operation). Although Triolan has been hurt, Russia is unlikely to bring down the Internet across Ukraine.

As a general rule, the government has the right to decide to shut down the Internet, and can order the ISP to shut down the Internet line, control the speed, and limit the connection. This is a high hurdle for external hackers to plan a shutdown.

Russia says that one way is to align the aim of cyber attacks such as DDoS attacks with border routers that connect domestic and overseas networks, Doug Madley, director of analysis business at Kentik, a company that measures Internet communication charges. Points out.

"It's not very realistic to bring down a country-wide net with a DDoS attack," says Madrid. "Border routers are designed to be fairly robust. If easy, the Ukrainian internet should be down by now."

On the other hand, it is not impossible in theory because there is a precedent that an American hacker launched a DDoS attack on a North Korean server and blocked the net at the beginning of 2010. However, Ukraine, which has been cyber-attacked by Russia in the past, has experience in actual warfare, and the quality of defense and the amount of knowledge are not comparable to those of North Korea.

Moreover, it is not a clear weakness that stands against Russian hackers, but a huge amount of targets. Considering Ukraine's land area and geographical location, it means that it is interconnected with the backbone of the European Internet.

As of December 2009, there are 4,900 ISPs in the country, according to a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Internet Association. Several providers have worked together in anticipation of these crises. The New York Times reports that it is taking measures to ensure that one company can connect to the Internet even if the line goes down, and has a spare network center.