Ukraine's Cyber War: Meet the Man at the Frontline

Illia Vitiuk, the head of the cyber department at Ukraine's top counterintelligence agency, discusses the ongoing cyber war with Russia and the efforts to protect Ukraine's critical infrastructure. Despite Russia's attempts to destroy Ukraine's digital infrastructure, its hackers have been unable to achieve this goal. However, Ukraine has faced nearly 3,000 cyberattacks this year alone, weakening its infrastructure and allowing Russia to steal sensitive information. Vitiuk and his team are constantly investigating and responding to Russian state hackers, sharing their findings with allies. The SBU's cyber department was created in 2012, and since then, Russia has launched increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks against Ukraine. Following the invasion, Russian hackers shifted tactics towards intelligence gathering and disrupting the power grid. They have targeted healthcare and insurance providers, infiltrated military operational planning systems, and attempted to gather information about Ukrainian intelligence gathering and the military's use of Starlink. While the SBU has been successful in preventing full access to these systems, Russia has still managed to gather some information.