Russia has one of the most capable and technological militaries on the planet. They have advanced intelligence, information warfare, cyber warfare and electronic warfare capabilities.
Russia has used these technologies in recent years in combat in Syria and the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, and is using them in its current invasion of Ukraine.
The terms “intelligence,” “information,” “cyber” and “electronic” denote distinct but overlapping fields. As a cybersecurity professor of practice, I can explain what they are and how Russia is using them in Ukraine.
Intelligence and counterintelligence in the information age
The role of intelligence is to gain insight about the enemy’s activity. The role of counterintelligence is to blind the enemy or distort his view. Automation in intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance – key functions of intelligence in warfare – has become a common practice for modern militaries.
Intelligence services collect vast amounts of data from open-source intelligence (OSINT) – information collected from news, social media and other publicly available sources – as well as secret sources, and use artificial intelligence to analyze the information.
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