The Cybersecurity Risks of an Escalating Russia-Ukraine Conflict

by Paul R. Kolbe, Maria Robson-Morrow and Lauren Zabierek

February 18, 2022, Updated February 24, 2022

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Summary.

Update: Russian forces launched an attack on Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Paul R. Kolbe is the former director of the Intelligence Project at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Kolbe previously led BP’s Global Intelligence team supporting threat warning, risk mitigation, and crisis response. Kolbe served 25 years as an officer and executive in the CIA’s Operations Directorate.

Maria Robson-Morrow manages the Intelligence Project at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She holds a PhD from Northeastern University, where her dissertation research focused on private-sector intelligence. She previously worked as a security intelligence analyst in the Canadian energy industry.

Lauren Zabierek is the executive director of the Cyber Project at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center. She comes to this role as a 2019 graduate of the Kennedy School’s mid-career MPA program. Lauren served as an intelligence officer in the United States Air Force at the beginning of her career. Later, as a civilian intelligence analyst with the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) assigned to the Office of Counterterrorism, she completed three war zone deployments.

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The Cybersecurity Risks of an Escalating Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Summary.

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