Cyberattacks have played a significant role in the war in Ukraine. Officials in Washington and Kyiv have blamed Russian hackers for targeting satellite systems and using digital assaults to execute disinformation and psychological warfare campaigns. Victor Zhora, the deputy chairman of the State Service of Special Communications and Information Protection of Ukraine, is actively involved in defending against those attacks and talks to Safe Mode about the evolution of cyberwar in Ukraine. CyberScoop reporter AJ Vicens also joins the show to talk about his reporting on the cybercrime underworld and hacker forums such as BreachForums.

Victor Zhora on the frontlines of digital war between Ukraine and Russia

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian power grid has come under sustained attack by Russian forces, and keeping it up and running has been a significant challenge. One of the major issues Ukrainian energy officials have had to confront is the way in which Russian electronic warfare systems have disrupted GPS, which is a key tool in running electrical distribution systems. Taras Vasyliv, the head of the Dispatching Control Systems Department at the Ukrainian energy utility Ukrenergo, and Joe Marshall, a security researcher at Cisco, collaborated on an innovative solution to address the vulnerabilities of GPS systems in the Ukrainian grid. And on this episode of Safe Mode, they sit down with host Elias Groll to discuss the novel tool they developed to maintain the delivery of electricity even in the face of Russian jamming. CyberScoop reporter AJ Vicens also joins the show to discuss a wide-ranging operation targeting customers of the data storage company Snowflake.

As many as 165 companies ‘potentially exposed’ in Snowflake-related attacks, Mandiant says | CyberScoop

Keeping Ukraine’s grid up and running amid war; Snowflake customers under attack

Safe Mode Podcast

Related tracks