Battling the bear: Ukraine's approach to national cyber and information security

Ukraine has faced substantial challenges across multiple fronts in its successful 2014 Revolution of Dignity. Among the greatest challenges Ukraine has faced is the establishment of a national cybersecurity infrastructure capable of withstanding cyberattacks and information operations against military and civilian infrastructures. Ukraine’s experience is counterintuitive to the constant refrain in cyberspace regarding asymmetric advantage. Ukraine has struggled with the help of European and NATO allies to forge multiple organizational structures capable of facilitating national information and cyber defense. This work offers detailed analysis on the construction of national information resilience and cyber capabilities by a medium-sized state under duress and coercion from an adversary state by leveraging interviews with and documents from Ukrainian ministers, general staffs, security service personnel, soldiers, journalists, civilians, and academics conducted over two years. The result is analysis that informs the underlying notions about small to medium state defenses in relation to well-resourced adversaries.