Introduction
The Russian invasion of Crimea and Ukraine and the U.S. and E.U. response to it has changed the political landscape of Eastern Europe for at least a generation. The Russian invasion of Ukraine gave Russia a substantial strategic advantage in the region and disrupted the Western World’s attempts to contain Russia. Russia used cyberspace as a blunt weapon against the West, which surprised many states. It would take years for cyber attackers to figure out that they could attack critical infrastructure directly through email. With nuclear missiles, there is no room for failed logic when you can kill millions of people with one electronic click.
Body
Russia’s cyberattacks have forced U.S. intelligence agencies to make significant changes within their operations. The CIA has been hit hard by losing communications and diplomatic ties to Russia and has had to expand efforts to recruit agents from Western Europe. The CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies are also learning from Russia’s cyberwarfare operations. The U.S. is now forming its cyber force dedicated specifically to offensive operations against foreign states. One of the obvious targets for this operation is Russia and China, which have become increasingly hostile towards the United States in recent years.
If Russia keeps hacking into other countries’ data systems, a state-run cyberattack will eventually happen in some way or another. Without their state behind them, cyber weapons can still cause immense damage by disrupting critical national infrastructure in the country where they are used. It is also tricky for Internet-using societies to determine the intent of cyber-attacks. Attackers can hide their identities and disrupt vital systems without permanent damage.
Russia impacted the West through its invasion of Ukraine by massing tens of thousands of troops to the Russian-Ukrainian border, stirring discord in Crimea, and providing military equipment to pro-Russia rebels in eastern Ukraine that are fighting Ukrainian forces. These developments caused a lot of tension between Russia and various Western countries. The latter saw the moves as evidence that Putin was trying to keep Ukraine within his influence as much as possible, as well as a part of more enormous Russian efforts to reassert its dwindling influence in many parts of the World. Western leaders have repeatedly warned Russia not to interfere with Ukraine’s internal affairs, with Obama warning this week that “He (Putin) will only further isolate Russia and diminish its place in the World.
Some of the ways that Russia has impacted the Western World
Economic sanctions were hurting the Russian economy. With western sanctions, Russia finds it increasingly difficult to sell its oil, gas, and other commodities. Western countries have become Russian allies in their efforts to isolate Russia from international markets, so the South Stream oil pipeline and the Nord Stream Gas Pipeline have been canceled or postponed.
European business’ loss in Russia. Most European companies find themselves with a need for more revenue as a result. Hard-hit is German car companies counting on lucrative sales to Russia for years and were now seeing their continued growth stymied by western sanction efforts.
Cyber-attacks on businesses. In the past year, cyber-attacks on businesses have increased. One of the most notable attacks was the Target attack which resulted in a loss of sensitive information for 110 million customers. In addition to this attack on Target, over 46,000 businesses were attacked, and many had critical information stolen. They mainly affected large banking institutions, credit card processors, and retailers.
Cyber espionage is becoming more prevalent in Western countries as governments look to maintain a strategic technological edge against their adversaries. Cyber espionage can be defined as stealing intellectual property or other sensitive data from a competitor or foreign entity/government without their knowledge so that it can be analyzed and used to better oneself strategically.
Threatening U.S. and other Western countries with nuclear attacks at the first sign of conflict or disagreement – the largest nuclear arsenal in the World is not a deterrent without a credible threat of an attack from Russia or other countries. On November 25, 2018, Russian president V. Putin announced that Russia had developed and test-fired a new generation of advanced nuclear weapons capable of defeating all U.S. missile defense systems. These weapons are destabilizing because if Russia used them, any country would not be able to protect itself against them. The U.S. military has also noticed that Russia has behaved more aggressively since Putin came back as president in 2012. Putin sent his forces into Ukraine and annexed Crimea into Russia.
Conclusion
Russia has been using cyber warfare to undermine the Western World since 2011. Russia has been involved in several cyber-attacks, most of which are simple methods that impacted critical infrastructure and computers relatively little. The Stuxnet malware, however, was a highly sophisticated operation that targeted Iranian nuclear facilities. This operation helped America gain crucial intelligence on the Iranian program and hindered its ability to build and develop nuclear weapons. Russia continues to conduct cyber-attacks against countries like the U.S. and Europe. Still, so far, there have been few consequences for these aggressive actions in the form of economic sanctions or physical attacks.
References
Kammer, A., Azour, J., Selassie, A. A., Goldfajn, I., & Rhee, C. Y. (2022, March 15). How the war in Ukraine is reverberating across World’s regions. IMF. Retrieved February 14, 2023, from https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2022/03/15/blog-how-war-in-ukraine-is-reverberating-across-worlds-regions-031522
Mbah, R. E., & Wasum, D. F. (2022). Russian-Ukraine 2022 War: A review of the economic impact of the Russian-Ukraine crisis on the USA, UK, Canada, and Europe. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 9(3), 144-153.
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