French general: Ukraine carried out 'cyber defense revolution'

On Jan. 12, the head of France’s Cyber Defense Command, General Aymeric Bonnemaison, said that Ukraine had strengthened its cyber defense capabilities, which enabled “a real revolution by moving upmarket in its computer defense fight,” Euractiv reports.

He noted that Russian cyberattacks have been hitting Ukraine and its critical infrastructure since 2014. In turn, Ukraine worked on its vulnerabilities with the Western cyber powers, foremost the United States, making cyberattacks much less impactful and effective than expected.

Ukraine could have been “brought to its knees,” he said, as cyberattacks can be used to weaken the state permanently, but this “did not happen.” Bonnemaison has also noted that Ukraine now has a defensive advantage constituting a “real paradigm shift,” allowing the state to use other systems to rebound.

On Feb. 24, 2022, an hour before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s cyberattack had a significant impact causing disruptions across several public authorities, businesses and users in Ukraine, thus facilitating the military aggression, the European Council declared.