The conflict in Ukraine has shown that warfare has entered its “fourth plane” – cyber space, according to Microsoft’s President Brad Smith, speaking during Microsoft Envision in London, UK, today.
He argued that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine marks a significant shift in how warfare is conducted. This follows previous eras, in which land, sea, and air were prominent arenas. Smith noted that we are approaching the three-month point of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, “the world’s first major hybrid war.”
Smith pointed out this is a phenomenon Microsoft has already considered. For example, in calling for a Digital Geneva Convention to “obligate governments to protect civilians in times of peace as well as war. It also helped set up the Cybersecurity Tech Accord, which involves 150 companies from 29 countries around the world. This “brought us together to think about the principles for which we would stand as we saw a proliferation of weapons moving into cyber space.”
However, he expressed surprise that he would be discussing these principles in the context of a “significant, major war” so soon after.
Smith then set out three major tech roles Microsoft has focused on concerning the Russia-Ukraine conflict:
Sustaining a Government
He highlighted that the UK government had to move its communications underground in World War Two. “Technology changed where communication needed to live,” he stated. Something similar has happened in respect of the Ukrainian government, except this time, “communications have moved to the cloud.”
Smith said that even one week before the invasion began, the Ukrainian government ran entirely on-premise. It realized this was dangerous, and Microsoft helped the government very quickly move to the cloud, in addition to other parts of the country’s economy. “We recognized that we needed in this case not just to move their data and infrastructure to the cloud, but in some instances to move it to the cloud outside Ukraine.” He added: “The best way to protect a country in time of war is to make sure its continuity by dispersing its digital assets.”
Defending a Nation
Smith emphasized that the first shots of the war were not fired on February 24, when the invasion began, but before then, “where the first “shells” were actually fired in cyber space.” The first weapon was malware called FoxBlade, which simultaneously attacked more than 300 targets across the Ukrainian government and critical industries. This attack showed that in warfare, “distances have shrunk, and speeds accelerated.” He added that “cyber weapons today can go halfway around the world at the speed of light – far faster than any hypersonic weapon.”
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