intelligence analysts say. It’s information Russia
can use to identify and locate Ukrainians most
likely to resist an occupation, and potentially
target them for internment or worse.
“Fantastically useful information if you’re
planning an occupation,” Jack Watling, a military
analyst at the U.K. think tank Royal United
Services Institute, said of the auto insurance
data, “knowing exactly which car everyone
drives and where they live and all that.”
As the digital age evolves, information
dominance is increasingly wielded for social
control, as China has shown in its repression
of the Uyghur minority. It was no surprise to
Ukrainian officials that a prewar priority for
Russia would be compiling information on
committed patriots.
“The idea was to kill or imprison these people at
the early stages of occupation,” Victor Zhora, a
senior Ukrainian cyber defense official, alleged.
Aggressive data collection accelerated just
ahead of the invasion, with hackers serving
Russia’s military increasingly targeting individual
Ukrainians, according to Zhora’s agency, the
State Service for Special Communications and
Information Protection.
Serhii Demediuk, deputy secretary of Ukraine’s
National Security and Defense Council, said
via email that personal data continues to be a
priority for Russian hackers as they attempt more
government network breaches: “Cyberwarfare is
really in the hot phase nowadays.”
There is little doubt political targeting is a goal.
Ukraine says Russian forces have killed and
kidnapped local leaders where they grab territory.