Hello, World!
Welcome to our 35th edition. To begin our new season, we have dedicated this edition to the conflict in Ukraine, covering topics including Russian internet censorship and Russian cyber attacks on one of Ukraine’s telecom operators. Our weekly feature discusses how satellite images and open source intelligence have change the coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Additionally, we have included a section for donations to the Ukrainian Red Cross and encourage you to contribute if you are able.
Consider a Donation⛑
If you have the means, please consider a donation to the Ukrainian Red Cross. This organization is working on the front lines to facilitate evacuations and providing shelter, food, and water to those affected.
Internet Censorship in Russia
The internet is a place built for connection. It’s a great thing to be able to interact with people and sites that open one to new ideas and help broaden our understanding of the world. Censorship as a way to counter the nasty things out in the web seems like a good idea in some circumstances, but the internet has been locked down — specifically in Russia — in order to separate the country from the rest of the world.
The goal
For years, Russia has been trying to set itself apart from the rest of the world. It’s been following in China’s footsteps as it tries to construct an internet all for itself, what has been dubbed a Splinternet. Theoretically, with this Splinternet having been achieved, Russia can pursue their goals of limiting certain websites and servers that have been notorious for criticizing the government, like Twitter.
The approach
So, how has Russia been going about doing this? They have a few ways of limiting access to websites:
Their Internet Service Providers (ISPs) reset user connections continuously as they try to access a site, resulting in frustrating unfulfilled requests
They stop TLS connections, which are mechanisms that use encryption to govern internet connections. Doing this blocks a lot of websites just on its own.
They manipulate the address of sites, the Domain Name System (DNS), so that users simply can’t access the page on a browser.
However, even with the steps that Russia has taken to close itself off from the rest of the internet, they are far from reaching the Splinternet that China has.
“They haven't got the people to do it,” said Doug Madory, who works with the internet-monitoring company Kentik. “There’s a ways to go before Russia becomes like China.”
Russian Invasion Targets Ukraine Telecom Operator
One of Ukraine’s national telecom operators, Ukrtelecom, was forced to shut down services to private users and business clients recently as Russian cyberattacks targeted the company’s IT infrastructure. This restriction of services protected the access of key customers such as military users and critical infrastructure. Ultimately the total connectivity provided by the company fell to just 13% of what it was before the Russian invasion of Ukraine started last month.
How has this progressed?
The company had already faced struggles following the Russian invasion, with the damaging of physical infrastructure decreasing its coverage to about 80% of previous levels. Following the most recent attack, this time on the company’s cyber infrastructure, Yuriy Schyhol, head of Ukraine’s State Service for Special Communication and Information Protection, said that a fast response was utilized and the providing of services has gradually begun to resume as cyber infrastructure is repaired.
How do we know it was a cyber attack?
NetBlocks reported observing users consistently losing connectivity over the course of the day when the attack occurred, indicating that the attack was not on the physical cablings themselves, but instead on the cyber infrastructure itself at the data center. Due to the nature of the attack, this interruption of services had far reaching effects, even for those in Ukraine far away from the conflict itself where up until now the majority of network outages have occurred.
Weekly Feature: The View from Above
Kyle Glenn, a project manager in Wales, is also the co-founder of Conflict news, a Twitter account with over 400k followers that collects and shares photos of global conflicts from a variety of different sources. Since early last year, Glenn has been closely watching the Russian military amass near the Ukraine border via SkyWatch (an online service that provides access to satellite images). Through the use of social media and open source satellite images, people like Glenn have been fundamentally shaping the way the Ukraine war is being covered.
Open Source Intelligence
Glenn and others like him are a part of the open source intelligence community. These people spend their free time gathering and sharing intelligence, which increasingly includes satellite images. Most of the community does this as a hobby and is not paid for their work.
Social Media + Satellites
The work done by the open source intelligence community has been further enabled by social media platforms and the increase in access to satellite imagery. Governments and intelligence agencies often keep satellite intelligence classified and inaccessible to the public. However, as more privately owned companies acquire and operate their own satellites, this information is becoming more and more available.
Glenn says that satellite images have been used in previous conflicts, but not to the extent of what has come out of Ukraine. This rise in commercial satellites coupled with increase social media use has made sharing this data quick, accessible, and efficient. Quality satellite images can be bought for as little as $10. The resolution of these photos is high enough to identify objects such as cars and road signs. Outside of the monitoring global conflicts, these images have also been used to track wildfires or ships in the oceans
“The fundamental capability hasn’t changed dramatically,” says Chris Quilty, a partner at Quilty Analytics, “It's the willingness and manner in which users are ingesting and using the data that has changed”
Combating Misinformation
The satellite images of Ukraine have helped to challenge disinformation about the conflict. Sharing these images on social media allows internet users to verify the source themselves.
“You can present the evidence to a wider audience in as unbiased a way as possible and let people come to their own conclusions,” says Glenn.
Some companies have been sharing these images directly with the Ukrainian military (like Canadian firm, MDA). This intelligence can potentially shift the strategic decisions made by military leaders, meaning these photos can have an impact over the course of the war.
“There are real, potential life or death consequences,” says Dr. Rita Konaev, from Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.
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Written by Hope McKnight, Arielle Michelman, and Molly Pribble
Edited by Molly Pribble