Phish, Fix & Finish: Russia’s Espionage for Battlefield Advantage

With Russia’s full-scale invasion firmly in its third year, Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines have become a principal focus of Russia’s cyber campaign. Through a series of notable cases conducted by various Russian-aligned cyber units, our presentation aims to draw attention to this trend and outline some of the under-recognized ways in which Moscow has reoriented its cyber program away from its early sabotage focus to targeted espionage in order to intercept communications, geolocation information, and other forms of sensitive access or signals that might shape direct battlefield advantages for Russian conventional forces.

Beyond detailing the hidden shifts that have occurred in Russia’s approach to cyber operations in a theater of war, and the increasing role that cyber operations are playing in collecting military signals intelligence, this presentation offers a more fundamental glimpse into the future of cyber conflict — one where, as technology continues to transform the character of warfare and make combat more data-driven, soldiers’ smartphones, tablets, and the networks that connect them are gaining prominence as mission-critical targets for our adversaries.