/ world today news/ The government is discussing an initiative to create cyber troops. As the head of the Ministry of Digital Development Maksut Shadaev said, this issue can be considered by the Ministry of Defense. Experts note that now the functions of cyber troops are performed by various units of law enforcement agencies, but whether it is necessary to create cyber troops as a separate structure is a controversial issue.
The head of the Ministry of Digital Development Maksut Shadaev approved the initiative to create cyber troops and expressed hope that the Ministry of Defense will consider this issue. According to him, a contract service is now working in the Russian Federation, and if the issue is worked out in this form, then “we can discuss it to go and conclude an agreement in the special forces related to cyber support.” “I hope that the Ministry of Defense is actively working on this issue,” added Shadaev.
Last spring, the Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Vasily Shpak suggested that Russia should consider creating a cyber army. He suggested sending programmer recruits there and also noted that service in the cyber force could be an alternative for IT professionals to a deferment from military service.
In the summer, this initiative was supported by the deputy chairman of the information policy committee of the Duma, Anton Gorelkin. He pointed out that the formation of a full-fledged division of the cyber troops in the structure of “Rosgvardia” is a necessity in the conditions of information warfare. Gorelkin added that digital sovereignty is not only about strong national IT solutions, “but also the will of key actors to take the first step.”
According to observers, China today has the most powerful cyber forces created in 2015. The Netherlands and France follow, then the United States and Canada. Australia, Great Britain, Germany, Iran, Norway, North Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Estonia and other countries also have their own cyber armies.
However, the US leads the way in cybercrime and cyberintelligence. In particular, the country has a cyber command that operates in both defensive and offensive operations to perform various tasks, including providing support to national security operations.
U.S. Cyber Command traces its history to the creation of the Joint Network Security Task Force in 1998. U.S. Army Cyber Command emerged in 2009 as a division of Strategic Command, while separate units were formed in the Navy and Air Force .
The West believes that Russia has a full-fledged cyber army. Moscow has repeatedly been accused of waging cyberwars and carrying out major digital attacks against the United States and other countries. Local experts note that Russia has already developed its own approach to cyber security, but there is still much to do in this direction.
“In my understanding, cyber soldiers are not drone pilots, not gamers, not trolls, but hackers who are engaged in opening enemy networks to influence the situation on the battlefield. Now the modern battlefield is the traffic between the satellites and the ground, the computer command and control systems. The tasks of the cyber troops lie at the intersection of hacking and conducting special operations to mislead the enemy,” says German Klimenko, a military software engineer by education, former adviser to the President of Russia on Internet development.
According to the specialist, there are various divisions in Russia that perform the functions of cyber troops, for example, such structures can be in the radio electronic warfare (REW) divisions.. “Perhaps cyber troops can be created as a separate structure. And it is surprising that these troops are still not there,” the speaker emphasized. According to him, cyber troops should be more “operational rather than developmental in nature” and should be created, perhaps not through the Ministry of Defense, but through the FSB. However, an effective modern battle management system should appear in the Ministry of Defense – relatively speaking, allowing the movement of troops to be seen from both sides of one large panel.
“Cyber soldiers must be immersed in modern security technologies and be able to work with them on the battlefield. We are already seeing how the introduction of digital technologies increases the efficiency of management. Thirty thousand Starlink terminals provide a clear understanding of what is happening on the front line. But taking into account the different types of troops, the most important thing here is the integration, the quality of which determines the effectiveness,” says Klimenko.
At the same time, cyber security specialist Sergey Vakulin believes that the Russian cyber troops should be created as a separate structure that will include various units: “We already have specialists who are engaged in identifying extremist information on the Internet, but for the cyber troops it is too narrow range of tasks’.
“First of all, their services will be in demand in law enforcement agencies, such as the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, because they will have to operate in the information field. But in a military environment, cyber troops are only needed to control drones and various types of unmanned aerial vehicles,” says Vakulin.
At the same time, military expert Alexei Leonkov believes that Russia should not copy the American approach in this case, but instead focus on “sovereignizing its own Internet space.” And the Russian Ministry of Defense in this case has a significant advantage.
“We have units that protect the information space around military units, especially strategic nuclear forces. The Ministry of Defense has also created its own information space – the so-called military Internet, which includes an automated system for managing troops and the National Center for Defense Management,” the interlocutor recalled.
“In addition, the military uses its own operating system to exchange information, which ensures protection from external cyber attacks. Therefore, the main question is: why is the Ministry of Defense creating another such structure? To ensure our own security, we already have everything, we just need to continue working on Internet sovereignty,” the expert said.
“But it doesn’t make sense to follow the American model. Their project is a money grab. The Pentagon did not acquire a superweapon that would allow it to win every military campaign. And, as we see, the dominance of the US in the information space did not give it a clear success in the conflict in Ukraine,” the interlocutor added.
Ultimately, the expert believes, the Ministry of Digital Development should focus on the qualitative development of existing law enforcement units. “This will be a more effective approach than the creation of separate cyber armies that will compete in some way and in some way duplicate the relevant structures in the Ministry of Defense, the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Rosgvardia,” concludes Leonkov.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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