Private Initiatives for Public Cybersecurity in Ukraine

Overview

Cybersecurity conflict has played a significant and evolving role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, acting as a critical front in the broader conflict. Throughout the course of the invasion, private companies have provided much needed support to the Ukrainian cyber defences and helped to prevent the crippling of Ukraine's digital infrastructure.

This critical form of public private partnership (PPP) is the subject of a GCSCC research project investigating the impact of these collaborations of Ukraine's war-time cyber resilience. The project undertook a series of dialogues with policy makers, private companies and think tank members who have first hand experience of the private sector’s support for cyber-resilience in Ukraine. Where possible, the project also sought to incorporate inputs directly from Ukrainian representatives.

Objectives

The learnings from the project dialogues are helping to identify priorities and develop policies that can help Ukraine better utilise these partnerships during the conflict. Longer-term, other states and private sector actors will be able to use these learnings to prepare for future conflict scenarios and foster more comprehensive cybersecurity resilience. Early insights from the research were offered to the Ukraine Recovery Conference in June 2023 and shared were shared at a workshop at Chatham House in September 2023. A publication is underway.

The Ukraine case study forms part of a wider package of research into recent cases of cyber-aggression conducted by the GCSCC. This case study research intends to provide lessons for the design and delivery of future cyber capacity building activities.