Cyberwar Analysis Russia and Ukraine in the National Interest Approach and Realism
PRELIMINARY
War is a phenomenon in international relations that results in the destruction of countries in terms of physical, economic, population, military and other things. However, nowadays war is not only carried out physically, there are other methods without having to involve fully armed forces, but it has the same danger as combat, namely through the digital realm, namely through internet technology. Basically this war is invisible but its impact is very real to be felt. War that uses this technology is called cyberwar. The risks and impacts of cyberwar tend to be quite serious, because they can cause very confusing vulnerabilities, such as disconnection of the power grid, communication network, banking to other aspects that others are not aware of.
The current war conflict is the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Russia has a long-term goal after the end of the Cold War, namely to restore the status of the great power of the Soviet Union, to be considered equal by the West and to be able to influence political developments in its neighbors, such as Moldova or Kazakhstan. However, Ukraine has thrust itself into Western influence against Putin's interests. The war was not only carried out openly, but it was reported that it had an impact on other threats, which triggered a large-scale cyber war.
CONTENT DISCUSSION
Cyber warfare is a form of war that uses technology hackers in today's information age. This hacker attack aims to manipulate information, the existence of espionage, disinformation, and attacks on computer infrastructure. Merriam-Webster defines cyber as: “of, relating to, or involving computers or computer networks (as the internet)”. The virtual world is more than just the internet, hardware, software, and information systems, but also people doing social interactions in this network. The virtual world is a place for competing interests between interest groups, individuals, in conflicts and disputes. In the midst of armed conflict, Russia and Ukraine launched cyber attacks on each other. Basically, Russia has a historical chronological record in launching cyber attacks against the Ukrainian state, such as:
In 2014 there was a voting hack ahead of the national election
In 2015 and 2016 there were attacks on the power grid that caused blackouts that left 225,000 Ukrainians without electricity
In 2017 Russia unleashed one of its most destructive cyberattacks, via ransomware which cost US$10 billion globally.
Deputy Head of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Serhiy Demediuk (11/2/2022) stated that the number of Russian cyberattacks against Ukraine has tripled since November 2021. According to cybersecurity researchers, Russia has infected hundreds of computers belonging to the Ukrainian government, as well as in neighboring Latvia and Lithuania. This is evidenced by about 70 websites of the Ukrainian national and regional governments being targeted by cyberattacks on January 14, 2022, although no critical infrastructure was affected and no personal data was hacked. However, this is considered a threat that could endanger the integrity of the nation. A number of banking institutions and network disruptions that occurred in Kharkiv Ukraine were reported to be inaccessible, which is suspected to be related to cyber attacks carried out by Russia against Ukraine (Source: Kompas Daily).
Of this, Serhiy Demediuk stated that: “This attack was aimed at providing psychological pressure and information to people. They don't damage infrastructure or steal information or they will be hidden and no one will see their actions. They only aim to threaten Ukraine” (Source: NetBlocks twitter account)
According to the Ukrainian company Netblock, on its Twitter account, it stated that: "This incident appears to be related to the recent DDos (Distributed denial of Service) attack, DDoS is an attack designed to make a website inaccessible," internet company NetBlocks said in a statement. tweet (Source: BBC,) (4/3/2022)”.
Chief Writer of Digital Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) Mathew Ingram, in response to this, Ukraine did not want to lose and did not remain silent. The Ukrainian government formed a cyber army or IT Army by recruiting cyber soldiers by asking for volunteers to protect critical infrastructure and carry out cyber missions against Russia, which consisted of security researchers to hackers (Source: from cjr.org).
The Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, Mykhaylo Fedorov announced on Twitter as follows:
Through the invitation, Mykhaylo Fedorov stated that hackers around the world have signed up to help Ukraine, even some of them are from Russia. The tweet was shared on a channel on the messaging app Telegram, which publishes a list of Russian websites. From this application, the cyber army will attack 31 large business sites belonging to Russia which will certainly cripple their economy. As a result, several websites of the Kremlin (Russian government), State Duma (Russian legislature), and the Ministry of Defense were downed by DDoS attacks, even Russian television channels were hacked which played many Ukrainian songs, and featured images of Ukrainian flags and nationalist symbols. (Quoted from Newsroom Narration). The IT Army's invitation certainly caught the attention of hackers who were furious with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, it is underlined that cyber attacks such as DDoS or tampering with other websites are illegal acts, which can endanger law enforcement and government operations.
ANALYSIS
Currently non-traditional threats arise more than conventional threats, for example cyberwar. Non-traditional threats have been discussed previously, but more as a theoretical and conceptual existence Cyberwar proves that non-traditional threats are more prominent today and need to be used as reflections that must be watched out for.
If analyzed, according to Hidemi Suganami, one of the contributory Causes of War, namely war occurs because there are opportunities and coincidences that direct a series of events or incidents towards war. The two countries that are hotly discussed and get the world's attention have a national interest, namely through cyber attacks aimed at computer connections to cripple the network system and economy of the opposing country. This national interest is a more complex attack that seeks to achieve complete control over an information technology system, the goal of which is to overthrow the system owned by the opposing country. Through the concept put forward by Donald E. Nucherlain, that national interest is the need felt by a country and its relationship with other countries for its external environment. It is this national interest that makes a major contribution to the foreign policy of a nation, in which Russia and Ukraine have mutual interests in this cyberwar action.
If it is associated with the concept of realism, it is simply Patriam Homini Lupus which means the state is a wolf to other countries. With the nature of the state like that, it certainly threatens and endangers other countries. Just as human nature is a selfish and individualistic creature who wants to overcome their fear by mastering each other. According to the realism paradigm, the state is the only one who has an important role in carrying out international relations here as a figure who is thirsty for strength to fulfill the national interest of his nation.
The conflict between Ukraine and Russia is one of the strongest evidences that the realism paradigm is still running. The conflict between Ukraine and Russia is in accordance with the earlier classical realist thinkers, namely according to the figure of Tuchydides, who stated that each country seeks strength and position both materially and politically. This opinion of the Tuchydides is evidenced by what Russia is now preparing to do in trying to invade and dominate Ukraine.
Here there is a picture that Russia is a country with its power that threatens as a great power that wants to control over Ukraine through military and non-military forces. So that Ukraine feels as a form of threat, given the fear of an invasion of the Crimea region a few years ago, which tried to do bandwagoning with NATO (North Atlantic Threaty Organization)
CLOSING
As national security, the state has an important role in determining the sovereignty and national security of a country. As for the territory of the state that needs to be maintained its sovereignty, namely: land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. Cyberspace is one of the national security that must be maintained, because of the phenomenon of attacks aimed at a country through cyber vulnerabilities and has implications for damage to the sovereignty of a country. Although the cyber war carried out by Russia and Ukraine is only targeting communication and technology networks as the main purpose of the attack. However, this certainly needs to be watched out for because it can develop into a threat that must be considered by every country in the world. It is possible that in the future cyber attacks may result in the theft of information via the internet for larger purposes such as code launches for enemy missiles and also the use of nuclear resources for personal gain, which can harm other parties, which can lead to war.
