Ukraine is on the front lines of global cyber security

The author begins by stating that it is incredibly difficult to find a difference between a cyber attack and a cyber crime. The author backs this statement up with an example of the Russian government. The Russian government protects cyber criminals in order to be able to blend in with them. Therefore, when there is a cyber attack, the government can just pin it on cyber criminals and deflect the blame. In return, the cyber criminals are allowed to stay under Russia’s protection from other countries. The author continues to explain the NotPetya cyber attack. This was a similar attack that was hard to characterize. Originally the attack seemed like it was a simple ransomware attack. However, with time, it became apparent that this attack had a destructive intent as “[i]t hit major American companies including Merck and Mondelez. The commonly cited estimate for total economic damage caused by NotPetya is $10 billion, but even this figure does not capture the far greater potential it exposed for global chaos” (Stein). Finally, the author points out how the Ukraine war is the beginning of more and more common cyber attacks and cyber warfare.