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

When Will Hurd served in the House of Representatives he quickly made a name for himself as one of the Congress’s leading voices on cybersecurity. The Texas Republican helped pass a series of key technology modernization bills and gained a reputation as a sensible bipartisan dealmaker. A former CIA operations officer, Hurd was once billed as the future of the Republican party. A centrist Black lawmaker lawmaker with impeccable credentials representing a majority Latino Texas border district, Hurd was the type of leader many hoped would broaden the Republican Party’s appeal with a new generation of Americans. Then Donald Trump happened. Today, he is a stalwart anti-Trump voice on a long-shot bid to win the Republican presidential nomination and convince his party to focus on what he sees as a series of generational technological threats.

GOP presidential candidate Will Hurd on cyber, AI and China

Distributed denial of service attacks are one of the great nuisances of online life today, but they can also have more serious impact on the internet, disrupting access to crucial services and information at critical moments. FBI Special Agent Elliott Peterson is one of the bureau’s most seasoned investigators of the networks responsible for launching the DDOS attacks and joins the show to discuss his work investigating these criminal networks. CyberScoop reporter Christian Vasquez also joins the show to discuss a recent setback for the Biden administration in upping the cybersecurity of the water industry.

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