EXCLUSIVE Ukraine Prepares Possible Transfer Of Sensitive Data To Another Country

Ethernet cables used to connect to the Internet are seen at the headquarters of ISP Wnet in Kyiv, Ukraine, July 26, 2017. REUTERS/Valentin Ogirenko.

March 9 – The Ukrainian government is preparing for the potential need to move its data and servers abroad if Russian invading forces deepen into the country, a senior cybersecurity official told Reuters on Wednesday.

Viktor Zhora, deputy head of Ukraine’s State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection, stressed that his agency was planning contingencies, but that this is being considered at all suggests that Ukrainians want to be prepared for any Russian threat to get hold of confidential government documents.

“We are preparing the ground,” Zhora said. Plan A was to protect the IT infrastructure in Ukraine. Moving it to another country will only be “Plan B or C”.

According to Zhora, this step can only happen after Ukrainian lawmakers approve the regulatory changes.

Government officials have already delivered equipment and backups to safer parts of Ukraine, out of reach of Russian forces that invaded on February 24 and laid siege to several cities. More

Zhora told Politico last month that there are plans to move sensitive data out of Kyiv in the event of a threat, but preparations for a potential move of data abroad go even further.

Ukraine has received offers to host data from various countries, Zhora said, declining to name them. He said that for reasons of proximity, “a European location would be preferable”.

“There are many options,” he said. “All suggestions are welcome and worthy of consideration.”

Zhora provided few details on how such a move could be made, but he said past efforts to keep government data out of Russia’s hands have involved either physically transporting servers and removable storage devices, or digitally migrating data from one service or server to another. . .

PROTOCOL

Even if lawmakers agreed to remove the restriction on sending Ukrainian data abroad and a protocol for the removal of IT assets were established, this would not necessarily mean that all or even most of government data or network equipment would immediately be sent out of the country. Zhora said.

Government agencies will have to decide on a case-by-case basis whether to continue their domestic operations or evacuate them.

What to do in wartime with piles of data collected by governments has become a matter of international concern since the Taliban’s lightning offensive in Afghanistan last August, which took city after city as US and other foreign forces withdrew.

The capture of Kabul by the Taliban meant that their forces were able to inherit sensitive data, such as the payrolls of Afghan civil servants and soldiers, which they could potentially mine for information on how to arrest or eliminate adversaries inside the country.

Similar concerns arise in Ukraine. Russia in possession of Ukrainian government databases and intelligence files could be useful if Russia wants to control Ukraine.

Pavol Yakubek, a historian at the Swedish University of Gothenburg, said Ukraine did not necessarily plan for a government in exile, usually as a last resort.

“Perhaps they want to prevent potential attempts by Russia to block their operations, both analog and digital,” he said.

According to Jakubek, in 1940 Norway physically shipped most of its Foreign Office archives to the north of the country and then eventually to the UK when German troops invaded.

In addition to trying to protect citizens under occupation, the Ukrainian authorities would like to deprive Russian troops of the opportunity to possess documents “that could otherwise be forged by the enemy and used for propaganda purposes,” Yakubek said.

Reporting by Raphael Sutter and James Pearson; Editing by Chris Sanders and Grant McCool

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