My Naive Opinion on the Cyberwar
I’ve been observing the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the cyberfront ever since the conflict first officially started about a week ago, and it’s been interesting observing how the situation is progressing. I’m sure you’ve heard by now about the Ukrainian government officially creating an “IT Army” of volunteer teams and individuals who wish to help out Ukraine through digital means. For obvious reasons, I cannot discuss the extent of my involvement in this conflict. However, I will say that I’m growing increasingly uncertain of whether or not this is truly the right way to approach cyberwar: crowdsourcing.
I’m sympathetic to the Ukrainian cause, and Russia is most absolutely the Devil, but I’m not sure if a crowdsourced hacker army is truly the best approach. Out of curiosity, I will admit that I did join the Telegram – which is a terrible choice of messenger, but that’s a discussion for another time. I don’t speak Ukrainian so the bulk of my experience in the Telegram has just been during pockets of English-speaking discussion, and I’m fairly certain that the vast majority of them are by children. I can’t imagine many of these people to be older than 14, or perhaps 16 if I’m feeling a little generous. The bulk of them are script kiddies or posers, bluffing and talking big but clearly showing little to no actual understanding or skill. It’s a game of ego, and that’s my problem: it’s a game to them.
The conflict is not a game. Lives are being lost. Lives are being destroyed. Families are being torn apart. People are either dying for either their country or for an oligarchy that has fed them nothing but lies and propaganda. It’s becoming increasingly evident that the war is itself unpopular in Russia and amongst Russians. Neither the Ukrainian people nor the Russian people want this, and it’s yet another story of old rich men sending young people to die for profit and power. This is a war, and war is hell.
It rubs me the wrong way that there are script kiddies who don’t recognize the magnitude of this time in history, and instead use it to elevate themselves, their own egos, and their own pride. I recall having a discussion with a script kiddie who very clearly understood nothing about computer networks and offered me a list of Russian government IP addresses in exchange for telling the admin to unban him from the Telegram, which I very clearly knew was a bluff and humored no further. I recall seeing ego battles between script kiddies about the “cyber degrees” they have and telling each other to “shut up” and “let me know when your botnet makes the news.”
It angers me that this is a game to them. It angers me that lives are lost and all these people can see are themselves. I have a serious problem with script kiddies and posers in the hacker community. Their entire knowledge base is derived from Hollywood movies and cinema, and they wish to indulge in non-productive pride that is ultimately detrimental to the cause they are supposedly “fighting” for.
Modern warfare includes cyber warfare. Cyber warfare is a form of espionage. If you blow open a door with a stick of dynamite, you’re not a lockpicker. I’m worried that too many cooks are spoiling the broth. I’m worried that so many kiddies are pointing LOIC at IPs they don’t recognize, not understanding what it is they’re doing, and doing the cyber equivalent to dropping mortar shells on friend and foe alike.
But that’s just my naive opinion that nobody asked for, and I’m just some college student on the Internet with a keyboard, so what do I know?
Happy hacking.