The funding package, which includes £16m in UK funding and a potential £9m more from international allies, will further support the Ukrainian Government to efficiently and effectively respond to cyber-attacks made against its cyber infrastructure amid Russian invasion.

It will also develop and aid Ukraine’s forensic capabilities to analyse system compromises, attribute attackers, and build better evidence to prosecute the attacks.

Furthermore, the programme — which launched shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, but was only officially announced to the public in November as to maintain its operational security — has been extended by an additional two years.

The programme had an initial backing of £6.35m in funding.

According to the UK Government, Ukraine has since defended themselves against attacks including “destructive wiper-ware” — malware that deletes or destroys an organisation’s access to data and files — as well as espionage-ware.

On the boost to the programme, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “Russia’s appalling attacks on Ukraine are not limited to their barbaric land invasion, but also involve sickening attempts to attack their cyber infrastructure that provides vital services, from banking to energy supplies, to innocent Ukrainian people.

“This funding is critical to stopping those onslaughts, hardening Ukraine’s cyber defences and increasing the country’s ability to detect and disable the malware targeted at them.”

Recommended

• Cloud First 2023 | DevOps in Action
• Jadu, CGI, and Edinburgh Council Collab for Intranet Gateway
• ICO Releases Guidance on PETs Ahead of G7 Roundtable This Week

According to a recent report from the European Cyber Conflict Research Initiative (ECCRI), and which was commissioned by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), Russia has employed a variety of cyber operations during the war and at an unprecedented scale.

As the report reads, “The volume of Russian-attributed or supported cyberattacks occurring in Ukraine is unprecedented: the Russians are maintaining a very high operational tempo.

“Participants identified several distinct types of Russian- attributed cyber operations that have occurred in Ukraine, including denial-of- service or distributed denial-of-service attacks (DoS or DDoS), destructive attacks or cyber effects operations, data weaponisation, and disinformation.”

As part of Russia’s efforts, Ukraine’s infrastructure concerning its energy sector has been a particular target, the report suggests.

Despite the digital onslaught against them, the ECCRI called attention to the “incredible resilience and determination” of the Ukrainian cyber response, as well as the sustained and “remarkable network of supporters from the West.”