Report: Loss of US aid makes Ukraine an "easy target" for cyber attacks
In the USA, authorities are being downsized and funding cut in rows. According to a report, this is also hitting Ukraine's cyber defense hard.
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The massive cuts and layoffs by the new US administration have also had consequences for Ukraine's defense capabilities against Russian cyberattacks and have made the country an “easy target”. This was reported by the financial magazine Bloomberg, citing numerous insiders; the quote comes from a cybersecurity expert from Kyiv. According to the report, programs that helped Ukraine fend off cyberattacks are affected, as are those that helped with the subsequent repairs. Other countries and even companies have partially stepped in, but they cannot fully compensate for the loss.
Help from the private sector
As the financial magazine writes, dozens of people in the USA and Ukraine who helped hundreds of institutions in the country with cybersecurity have had their employment contracts terminated or at least paused. This included the protection of power plants, the National Bank and facilities at Ukrainian nuclear power plants. At the same time, promised computer hardware and software for securing infrastructure was no longer delivered. According to the report, some of the programs that have now been cancelled were already approved under the first Trump administration.
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Bloomberg quotes Ukrainian expert Yegor Aushev as saying that after Russia achieved some high-profile successes in cyber warfare following the start of the attack on the whole of Ukraine in early 2022, things have also quietened down on this front because the USA has provided “significant support”. Thousands of people have received training in cyber defense, and the largest program in this regard had been financed by the US development agency USAID with 128 million US dollars. The program and others have been stopped. The 100 million US dollars that the USA wanted to provide for an international project would also no longer flow.
According to the article, several other countries have stepped in and increased their funding, including Canada, the UK, and Japan. They “acted quickly” and increased their financial aid for cybersecurity work. In addition, more than a dozen companies have supported the country, and here at least it looks as if this will continue. Money is coming from Google subsidiary Mandiant, Palo Alto Networks and Symantec, which belongs to Broadcom, among others. Nevertheless, this could not compensate for the lack of support from the US government.
(mho)
