In my last post I speculated about a theoretical conflict between two countries and some computer security aspects of such a conflict, at least regarding the public web. Let's now look at an actual conflict and some unanswered questions I have about that situation.
The Russian invasion of the former Ukranian Soviet Socialist Republic (now simply Ukraine) has been in progress for some time now. Russia is known to be at least historically quite capable in the areas of military intelligence, network infiltration and practically every other technical aspect of warfare. If I were some GRU (or whatever they call Russian military intel now) person in charge of an offensive operations group, I'd have a checklist that went something like...
A. Compile account records of all cellular telephones in current operation in target country
B. Compile records of all citizens of target country where local phone providers are concerned (addresses, bank accounts...)
C. Compile network maps of target country telephony (central offices, cell towers, microwave locations, exchanges, line types...)
D. Compile network maps of target country public internet, military net, government net and so on
E. Compile network maps of target country IOT situation
F. Map all current visible WLANs and active phones for immediate action
G. Map water, electrical and sewage systems, automated rail and road traffic control and communications methods for such
H. Compile data from compromised and/or captured cell tower equipment shacks
And so on. I'd think with even a small amount of some of the above information that the Russians would, from a Moscow suburb, be able to target everything from a railroad roundhouse to an individual cell phone user with 155mm artillery, if in range. I'd think that they could mess with control capability for everything from a military targeting computer to a garage door opener. And with the right tools, all from a coffee shop laptop over a VPN.
I haven't seen any reports of this nature.
Perhaps I'm not looking in the right places. Perhaps media workers don't understand heavily technical issues and therefore can't effectively write stories regarding such (I've seen that on the job in my distant past). Perhaps the current Russian military technical capabilities aren't what they used to be. Yes, I've heard of a few ddos attacks and some city services disruptions, but nothing of the widespread nature that I'm assuming is possible. In addition to the above, perhaps total cyber-warfare isn't applicable to a society that's not so fully "wired" that people place their lives onto their phones, communicating with the outside world via free (poorly coded) applications. Excuse me, 'apps'.
I don't know. I'll report back on this as soon as I know more about any of it.
