\u00bfC\u00f3mo se moviliza a una sociedad para la guerra total en la era de TikTok? Si su modelo son las “milicias” cibern\u00e9ticas que han surgido durante los \u00faltimos 15 meses de conflicto entre Rusia y Ucrania , lo hace reuniendo a las masas en las redes sociales para publicar memes propagand\u00edsticos y descargar scripts de hacking simples de aficionados.<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON \u2014 How do you mobilize a society for total war in the age of TikTok? If your model is the cyber \u201cmilitias\u201d that have sprung up over the last 15 months of conflict between Russia and Ukraine<\/a>, you do it by rallying the masses to post propaganda memes and download simple do-it-yourself hacking scripts.<\/p>\n A new study, due out Thursday<\/a> from the thinktank CSIS and previewed exclusively by Breaking Defense, delves deep into the role that non-government groups have played in the ongoing cyber conflict.\u00a0It grapples with how their role blurs traditional lines between civilian and non-combatant, neutrality and intervention, peace and war \u2014 and, most importantly, what effect they actually have.<\/p>\n Those actors include corporate giants like Microsoft<\/a>, which, the study notes, has spent over $400 million<\/a> since February 2022 to support Kyiv, primarily through free cybersecurity services<\/a> and cloud hosting for Ukrainian agencies whose servers were threatened by Russian strikes. They include tech upstarts like Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX<\/a>, which rushed 500 Starlink<\/a> satellite terminals to Ukraine in days, then later tried to roll back support<\/a> when it realized Ukraine was using Starlink to target artillery.<\/p>\n But they also include a wide and wild array of loosely organized volunteers, who are the subject of arguably the most intriguing essay in the collection, by West Point<\/a> professor Erica Lonergan<\/a>.<\/p>\n Consider the pro-Kremlin Killnet, described by Lonergan as \u201ca modest hack-for-hire group\u201d that started launching cyber attacks on Ukrainian and Western networks. \u201cKillnet\u2019s adherents are not particularly skilled and the group almost exclusively conducts straightforward DDoS [Digital Denial of Service] campaigns, publishing simple scripts on its social media channels for followers to use,\u201d she says scathingly.<\/p>\n The group\u2019s attack on US hospitals<\/a> in February lasted just six minutes; a more impressive attack on Latvia managed to disrupt public broadcasting for half a day. Yet Killnet has parlayed its wartime activity into almost 2,000 claimed members<\/a> (though how they\u2019re counting is hardly clear), over 50,000 fans subscribed to its channels on Telegram, and its own line of merchandise, including, Lonergan writes, \u201ca jewelry collaboration with Russian jeweler HooliganZ.\u201d<\/p>\n