Renewable energy broken? Future world fears to fight for natural gas

The United States has become the rescue team for the natural gas crisis in European countries, and hundreds of ships are running back and forth on the North Atlantic route. In the future, this wave of natural gas fleets will be even larger. The United States said it will cooperate with other suppliers to deliver an additional 15 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the EU in 2022, and to supply 50 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe every year before 2030. .

The United States will deliver about 22 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Europe in 2021. In the first quarter of this year, 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas have been delivered. Biden said that this year is 15 billion cubic meters more than last year, equal to 37 billion cubic meters a year. meter. 15 billion cubic meters of LNG is a large number, equivalent to one-sixth of Germany’s annual gas demand, but an increase of 15 billion cubic meters will not replace Europe’s imports of Russian gas, which supplied Europe with 155 billion last year Cubic meters of natural gas, most of which are transported by pipelines, and liquefied natural gas only account for one-tenth.

Could U.S. gas action help wean Europe from Russia? An article in the “Financial Times” pointed out that the United States is fully capable of helping Europe, because domestic production began to surge after the 2016 shale gas revolution in the United States. In December last year, the United States’ LNG exports exceeded competitors Qatar and Australia for the first time. In just six years, it has become the world’s largest exporter of natural gas. A sharp surge in European gas prices will attract more U.S. exports, which are set to add more capacity in the coming years as the world turns to natural gas as an excess energy source in the transition to clean energy.

Now the United States and European countries are actively building natural gas transmission terminals, but environmental experts worry that switching to LNG will be a disaster for the environment, tantamount to the risk that countries around the world will lock themselves in LNG for decades to come. . The main reason is the return on investment, as building LNG terminals is costly and takes years, and investors in these projects need to be assured that the transition to wind and solar will not render these fossil fuel assets obsolete within a decade .

In particular, LNG in the United States is particularly polluting. Two-thirds of natural gas extraction in the United States is extracted by pumping a mixture of water, sand and chemicals into rock at high pressure, a process known as hydraulic fracturing, which releases huge amounts of methane into the atmosphere. name pollution. Methane is many times more effective than carbon dioxide in warming, Stanford University research has found that methane leaks are six times greater than previously thought, and U.S. natural gas is more polluting than Russian natural gas and may even be dirtier than coal.

The United States also made a grandiose excuse, saying that the ultimate goal of expanding natural gas development and supply is still to switch to renewable energy, but it should let Europe get rid of Russian natural gas first, and then let Europe stop using natural gas completely. An expert from E3G, a European energy think tank, admitted that Europe does need natural gas, but importing U.S. natural gas runs counter to climate initiatives, arguing that importing U.S. LNG is not a long-term solution.

The United States accelerates supply to crowd out Russian exports, and the natural gas market will face a major reshuffle, and there may also be shortages. Failure to create suitable renewable alternatives for gas and heating in Europe in the future could boost demand for an already tight global LNG market in the short to medium term, at which point wealthy Europe and wealthy Asia will have to pay, the report said. Fight for limited LNG.

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A threat to national security! Kaspersky blacklisted by FCC

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has announced that it has added Kaspersky Lab to its list of entities that pose a threat to national security. Communication-based blacklist.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Jessica Rosenworcel said at a press conference on the 25th that this action is the FCC’s effort to strengthen the US communications network to defend against national security threats. She has previously warned that Russia could launch a global cyber attack following its invasion of Ukraine.

Once listed on the Entity List, funds subsidized by the US federal government cannot be used to purchase Kaspersky products and services.

At the same time, the FCC also added China Telecom Americas and China Mobile International (USA) Co., Ltd. to the list. Last year, five Chinese companies including Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hikvision, and Zhejiang Dahua Technology were added to the list. included in the list. The addition of Kaspersky this time is the first time that the United States has added a Russian company to a blacklist dominated by Chinese companies.

To this end, Kaspersky Lab responded in a statement that it was “disappointed” by the FCC’s action, calling it “a response to the tense geopolitical atmosphere and not a comprehensive assessment of Kaspersky products and services.”

On the other hand, according to a report by the Central News Agency on the 28th, the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee of the Legislative Yuan invited Chen Mingtong, director of the National Security Agency, to lead the heads of relevant intelligence agencies for consultation. He responded that “it must be taken into account” and further stated that the public sector purchases based on information security needs, but the proportion of Kaspersky products used is very low, only about 2% to 3% in the past two years.

The U.S. federal government actually banned the use of Kaspersky-developed antivirus software in federal government communications systems in 2017, amid concerns that the Moscow-based company would have ties to the Russian government and intelligence activities to secretly obtain Confidential Information.

A White House official said in 2017 that Kaspersky’s antivirus software was at risk on U.S. networks, largely because Russian law required the company to cooperate with intelligence agencies like Russia’s Federal Security Service. Kaspersky denied it at the time, saying it had no improper relationship with any government, and criticized the White House’s decision based on false allegations and inaccurate assumptions, including claims about Russian law and being influenced by policy.

Why is the oil price soaring? Traders are in a cash shortage, and crude oil open positions are cut in half

Why is the price of raw materials so intense? Relevant people explained that the exchange requires raw material manufacturers to pay high margins, and the industry is in distress and forced to liquidate positions, causing prices to fluctuate.

The Wall Street Journal and Reuters reported that raw material prices are too volatile, margin requirements have surged, and the cost of maintaining existing positions or opening new ones is extremely high. Many market participants are running out of money and can only sell their positions.

The most obvious example is open interest in Brent and West Texas Intermediate, which have halved this year. Not only that, in the past four weeks, the open interest of the six most important oil-related futures and option contracts has dropped by nearly 1 billion barrels, an unprecedented drop. Reduced liquidity will further exacerbate price volatility.

how to say? After Russia sent troops to Ukraine on February 24, Brent crude oil rose and fell by as much as 4% in 10 trading days, and oil prices once stood at a 14-year high, approaching $140 a barrel. Later, the industry was subject to margin calls and was forced to liquidate positions, and oil prices fell below $100 a barrel. Oil prices surged after Yemeni rebels, Houthi, attacked Saudi Arabia’s crude oil facilities on the 21st.

Raw material futures contracts can be used for speculation or hedging. When placing an order, the exchange will collect collateral and initial margin, and refund or ask for supplementary money according to the daily increase of the position. Recently, the market risk has increased day by day, and exchanges have increased the cost of original margin and variation margin.

The pressure of financing recovery is increasing day by day, it is difficult for traders to manage the financial risks of physical delivery of raw materials, and the cost of hedging is soaring, which also makes some transactions unprofitable. Some diesel and crude oil producers have been unable to find buyers at routine auctions. Insiders revealed that to hedge some liquefied natural gas (LNG) transactions, the original margin was close to three-quarters of the value of the underlying, which almost made it impossible to make money in LNG trading.

The threat of needles is great, and Russian helicopters change the way rockets are launched

With the influx of various NATO shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missile systems to support Ukraine, posing a great threat to Russian helicopters and low-altitude attack aircraft, there are currently videos on social networking sites showing that Russian attack helicopters have switched to a more secure attack method to avoid was shot down.

In the film, the Russian army uses a Ka-52 Alligator and Mi-28N Havoc attack helicopters to move forward in a low-flying manner, climb quickly before attacking, and launch heat-induced bombs and S- 8 rockets, then a quick left turn to return home.

This attack method first appeared in the teaching of the Mi-24 attack helicopter during the East German period. Many years ago, in the interview video of Russian TV (RT), there were also relevant training pictures, which showed that it was one of the standard tactics inherited from the Soviet era.

The advantage of using the climbing method to launch unguided rockets is that the range can be increased, but the disadvantage is that the accuracy will be greatly reduced, and the tail speed will be reduced due to the lengthening of the range, and the probability of unexploded bombs will also increase.

Although the Russian Ka-52 and Mi-28N have more advanced firing control computers that can assist in calculating the elevation angle of the rocket, but because the unguided rocket is easily affected by the wind direction or other factors, the parabolic launch will still reduce the accuracy. .

Even though the accuracy is degraded by the parabolic launch method, the S-8 rocket can effectively cover a large area and carry out indiscriminate attacks on people, buildings and light-wheelers.

In 2018, the Russian army also developed a laser-guided rocket kit similar to the U.S. APKWS, numbered S-8OFP, with a range increased from 4.5 kilometers to 6 kilometers, but due to the short launch time and high price, the number should not be enough to support It is a long-term war, so it should still be dominated by the traditional version.

According to the calculation of the destruction video that has been circulated in the media, it can be confirmed that the loss of Russian helicopters has reached 32. Therefore, the Ukrainian army has a large number of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, forcing the Russian attack helicopters to use a safer way to fire, because the stinger missiles can reach a range of 4.8 kilometers, if the traditional S-8 rocket is used, it is bound to use the parabolic launch method to increase the range to avoid being attacked by the needle.

Judging from the degree of damage to Ukraine’s front-line cities and the capital Kyiv, the main purpose of the Russian army’s use of parabolic launch of S-8 rockets should be to increase the psychological pressure of the Ukrainian military and civilians through indiscriminate bombing and to reach a ceasefire agreement as soon as possible.

At present, the ceasefire negotiations between the two sides are still ongoing, and Ukraine has rejected Russia’s proposed model of Swedish or Austrian neutrality, so the war is still expected to continue for several weeks until the two sides reach a consensus.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense claims to have killed 14,000 Russian troops and destroyed 450 tanks

Today is the 23rd day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense announced on Facebook that it had killed 14,200 Russian troops, destroyed 450 tanks, 93 aircraft, 112 helicopters, and 1,448 armored combat vehicles, as well as 43 air defense systems. been destroyed.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported that there is a very large gap between Ukraine and Russia in the number of losses announced. Russia claimed that 498 Russian troops were killed on the 3rd of this month, and has not been updated since then.

U.S. officials estimated Thursday that the actual death toll of Russian troops could exceed 7,000, while the number of wounded could be as high as 14,000.

Switchblade out of its sheath, the United States announced an additional $800 million in military aid to Ukraine

After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a speech to the U.S. Congress, which was appreciated by the audience, U.S. President Biden immediately announced that he would increase various arms worth $800 million to assist Ukraine, including the new “Switchblade” suicide drone. .

The US media pointed out that this large number of military aid projects will include 800 needle-launched shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, 1,000 LAWs, 2,000 Javelins, 6,000 AT4 and other anti-armor missiles, and 100 Switchblade suicide drones , a large number of light weapons and 20 million rounds of various ammunition and shells, bulletproof vests and helmets, 25,000 sets each.

Following the British media report last week that NATO had donated more than 17,000 anti-armor missiles to Ukraine, the United States added 9,000 more this time, making Ukraine’s number of anti-armor missiles far more than the main combat vehicles and infantry fighting vehicles sent by the Russian army. sum.

What is special is that the switchblade series of suicide drones with overweight assistance was launched by the American AeroVironemt company in 2011, and the U.S. Special Operations Command has purchased and used since 2017. It is divided into Switchblade 300 and 600 two styles.

Both Switchblade can be fired from a small launch tube and can be easily carried by a single soldier. The 300 series is 61 cm long and weighs 2.7 kg. The explosive power is about the same as a 40 mm grenade. Within kilometers, it can stay in the air for 10 minutes at the longest distance, and after locking on the target, it can dive and attack at a speed of 161 kilometers per hour.

The 600 series weighs 23 kilograms and is equipped with anti-armor warheads, which can destroy various armored vehicles or bunker targets, with a range of 40 kilometers, and stay at the longest distance for 20 minutes. After finding the target, it dives at a speed of 185 kilometers.

The Switchblade series is guided by cameras and GPS, which can be controlled manually by the operator, or pre-set the attack route to find the target and then attack. If the situation changes, the team member can cancel the attack and reset the route at any time.

Because it is powered by an electric motor, the Switchblade flies at a low volume, making it difficult for the enemy to detect and increasing the success rate of surprise attacks.

Compared with the Javelin anti-armor missile with a range of about 4.8 kilometers, the Switchblade suicide drone assisted by the United States this time has a larger range and is also aimed at the most vulnerable top of the armored vehicle. For the Ukrainian army, which lacks air-to-ground attack capabilities, this weapon will bring great help.

Although Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pointed out yesterday that the two sides have conducted in-depth discussions on Ukraine’s approach to the neutrality model of Sweden or Austria, and are close to completing the agreement, Bloomberg reporters received news from Ukrainian negotiating officials that the actual negotiation situation is still deadlocked, and Russia frequently The news of the peace talks was released to make the West prepare for the smoke bomb of sanctions relief as soon as possible.

Therefore, after this batch of 800 million US dollars of military aid is in hand, the war situation will be more difficult for Russia, and the subsequent negotiation conditions may continue to retreat until Ukraine can accept it.

The raw materials soared to the “Demon Nickel” breaking $100,000! A look at how the Russian-Ukrainian war is hitting supply chains

The Russian-Ukrainian war pushed up commodity prices, which hit the global financial market violently. The international nickel price even soared to US$100,000 per ton, an unprecedented 250% increase in two days, and finally the London Metal Exchange (LME) suspended nickel futures Contract transactions, and the recent war has hit the international crude oil, wheat, soybean, corn, and natural gas prices continue to soar, which will have an impact on Taiwan’s energy, food, and electronic supply chains.

1. Energy
   The first is that Russia’s global natural gas and crude oil market accounts for 17% and 11% respectively. If energy exports are blocked, it will seriously lead to energy inflation. In addition, the United States announced sanctions on Russian energy. The United Kingdom then announced that it will be phased by the end of this year. With the cancellation of Russian oil imports, the international oil price hit a new high, soaring to $130 per barrel, and the ensuing price rise may spread to the world.

Russia’s natural gas industry announced that its natural gas exports in the latest January-February period decreased by 32.6% year-on-year. Due to the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, geopolitical risks have increased. Assuming that Russia’s natural gas exports to Europe are reduced by 30% this year, the conversion will create a certain supply gap in Europe, and it must be completely Filling the supply gap has its challenges.

According to satellite data analysis, the average number of LNG ships operating in the waters around Europe was 40 in January, an annual increase of 67% compared with 24 in the same period last year, and the number continued to increase. Due to the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the risk of natural gas supply interruption in Russia has increased, and the supply of natural gas has increased. The nervousness pushed European prices sharply higher.

Cathay Pacific Futures believes that if the war is prolonged, the international energy market sector may be reshuffled. Considering the relatively stable political and economic development of the United States, it is estimated that the number of LNG exports from the United States will increase year by year, seize the European market share of Russian natural gas, and the United States and OPEC maintain At present, it is estimated that crude oil and natural gas prices will remain high in the first half of this year, and inflation will continue.

2. Food
   Russia’s wheat market accounts for 9% of the global market. If it is blocked, it will make global food inflation worse. Although the world’s main soybean and corn producing areas and exporters are in the Americas, Russia and Ukraine only account for a high proportion of wheat and various grains. There is more or less substitution between food crops, and higher oil prices push up transportation and mechanical farming costs.

China, the United States, Brazil and Argentina are the world’s major soybean and corn producing countries. According to USDA estimates, the four countries together account for 86.9% of the world’s soybean production and 68.5% of the world’s corn production, while Russia and Ukraine only account for 2.1% and 4.4% respectively. , but the output of wheat in Russia and Ukraine is relatively high in the world, with wheat accounting for 14% and barley accounting for 18.2%.

In 2021, Taiwan will import goods worth US$5 billion from Russia, of which 89% are coal, steel billets, oil and natural gas, and only 0.35% of agricultural and fishery products. After excluding the top two largest tobacco and frozen aquatic products, the remaining agricultural products only account for agricultural and fishery products. 25.7% of the total production, equivalent to 4.56 million US dollars, while imports from Ukraine are only worth 166 million US dollars, but as high as 43.2% are agricultural products, the top two are sunflower oil and corn.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine is Taiwan’s main importer of agricultural products. Only sunflower oil is mainly imported from Ukraine, which can be replaced by other edible oils, while Huang Xiaoyu and miscellaneous grains are mostly imported from the Americas and Australia. Although they will not be cut off, the import cost will be greatly increased. , Most of the domestic food raw materials rely on imports, and the food industry will face greater cost pressure in the short term.

3. Semiconductor
   Ukraine is a major supplier of semiconductor raw material gas, providing more than 70% of neon gas for global semiconductor equipment, of which neon gas is mainly used in the laser of deep ultraviolet light source (DUV) equipment, although neon gas is not the gas with the highest proportion of applications, However, if there is a shortage, it may cause the shipment of semiconductor equipment to be insufficient, and affect the expansion and production progress of the wafer foundry.

Russia holds more than 45% of the world’s palladium supply. Due to its good ductility and plasticity, it can be used as an indispensable key material in high-tech fields such as aerospace, navigation, military, nuclear energy, and automobile manufacturing through forging, rolling and wire drawing applications. , If Russia cuts off the supply of palladium, it may lead to a shortage of target material supply, which may lead to another interruption in the shipment of wafer foundries.

The fluctuation of nickel price is closely related to stainless steel, which has caused the relevant stainless steel industry in Taiwan to announce a complete closure. If there is a subsequent shortage of nickel ore, resulting in a surge in nickel prices, upstream stainless steel suppliers will inevitably increase their prices significantly. It is estimated that manufacturers may face profit compression in the short term. In the long run, downstream consumption will be further suppressed.

4. Memory
   Some processes in the memory-related industry use palladium products. If the supply of palladium in Russia is interrupted, it may have an impact on memory shipments. At present, nearly 90% of memory processes use DUV equipment. , it may lead to insufficient supply of DUV equipment, and the supply of memory will be seriously affected.
5. Stainless steel
   Russia is the world’s largest producer of nickel ore. At present, the total nickel production accounts for about 5.3% of the global supply. Among them, nickel is mainly used in a large number of areas, including stainless steel, batteries and alloys. The two-day rise reached an unprecedented 250%, and finally the London Metal Exchange (LME) even suspended trading in nickel futures contracts.

6. Aircraft
   Russian state-owned enterprise VSMPO-Avisma is the world’s largest titanium supplier, producing more than 30% of the world’s titanium metal, about 65% of Airbus’s titanium metal, Boeing’s 35% of its titanium metal, and Brazil’s aviation industry ( Embraer) all titanium comes from this company.

Titanium, which is favored by aircraft and car manufacturers due to its lightweight, high strength and heat resistance properties, has also been fluctuated by the Russian-Ukrainian war. Boeing, the American aerospace giant that has long cooperated with VSMPO-Avisma, said in a statement, Titanium purchases from Russia have been suspended, emphasizing that it has sufficient inventories and diversified sources.

7. Market
   Ye Wanting, a key income-earning multi-asset fund manager for KGI’s future generations, said that short-term geopolitical risks will still affect market sentiment. Sanctions have caused soaring raw material prices, causing inflation concerns. Western countries have gradually expanded sanctions against Russia, and the conflict between Ukraine and Russia There is no sign of relief in the short term, market risk sentiment is further avoided, and short-term market volatility will continue to intensify.

Weng Yujie, head of KGI Investment Strategy Department, said that although the US Congress advocated sanctions on Russia’s energy exports, the German Chancellor issued a statement saying that Russia’s oil and natural gas are very important to Germany, and the domestic consensus is to maintain Russia’s energy supply. The EU has not yet reached a consensus on energy sanctions, and the impact of subsequent sanctions on raw material prices must continue to be observed in the future.

A new global cold war? Arms demand is expected to increase, South Korean arms dealers share prices soar

Russia’s march to Ukraine, and countries are worried and race to buy more arms, which seems to have set off a new round of arms race in Europe. It is estimated that the orders of South Korean defense industrial companies will increase sharply, and the stock price has been soaring for several days.

The Korea Economic Daily reported on the 7th that in the six trading days between February 24 and March 4, South Korean arms industry LIG Nex1 Co. soared 21.7%, Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) soared 16.5%, Hanwha Aerospace soared Up 20.8%, Hanwha Systems soared 11.6%. All of these stocks far outperformed the broader KOSPI index.

After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, both Eastern and Northern Europe became customers of South Korean defense industry companies. Norway, Finland, Estonia, and Poland have all ordered the K9 self-propelled howitzer from Hanwha Defense, a subsidiary of Hanwha Aerospace. On the other hand, Hyundai Rotem is trying to sell the K2 Black Panther to Norway.

South Korean arms dealer sources said that compared with advanced countries, South Korean weapons are good value for money and are popular in Eastern Europe, and the escalation of armed conflict may bring more orders. The war in Ukraine has highlighted the importance of missile defense systems and air supremacy, and if the current crisis turns into a new global cold war, the demand for weapons will continue to increase.

In addition, Russia is the world’s second-largest arms supplier. The United States’ imposition of a semiconductor ban on Russia may hurt Russia’s military exports. South Korean manufacturers are expected to grab some market share. South Korea’s foreign ministry data shows that the country’s arms exports have nearly tripled to $7.3 billion in 2021 from $2.6 billion in 2016. In 2022, South Korean companies are expected to sign large orders in the Middle East, Europe and Australia, and the export value is expected to exceed US$10 billion.

A new attack method that can amplify DDoS packets by 65 times is born! Any novice can easily paralyze a target

DDoS attacks can be regarded as an effective tool to quickly paralyze specific network infrastructure and key services. This can be confirmed from the fierce DDoS attacks launched by the two countries after the war between Russia and Ukraine. Today, DDoS hackers with rich practical experience have developed a new DDoS amplification attack method called TCP Middlebox Reflection. This method greatly reduces the threshold for large-scale DDoS attacks, because attackers can easily amplify the attack packets of ordinary traffic by 65 times.

The current Russian-Ukrainian war has entered its ninth day. In addition to the actual military conflict, hacker groups called by Russia and Ukraine are also launching fierce DDoS attacks on the Internet in order to paralyze each other’s government departments and banking institutions and other network infrastructure and Serve. Just as the fiery DDoS attack drama started on the Russian and Ukrainian Internet, cloud security company Akamai discovered the first DDoS attack using the new TCP Middlebox Reflection amplification technology on the Internet. This new technology was still in the theoretical discussion stage 6 months ago. Think of the real application in DDoS attacks today.

From traditional UDP reflection technology to new TCP reflection amplification method
The new technology stems from an academic research paper published in August last year that explored a new attack vector and method that could use Middlebox and review weaknesses in the TCP protocol implemented in the infrastructure to launch reflective DoS amplification on targets attack. In the past, DoS amplification attacks traditionally used the UDP reflection method. Today, this non-traditional attack method makes full use of TCP, which is incompatible with Middlebox such as Deep Inspection Packet (DPI), to launch TCP-based reflection amplification attacks.

According to Akamai’s research report, TCP Middlebox Reflection technology will take advantage of the weaknesses of firewalls and content filtering systems, and then pour the reflected and amplified TCP traffic on the target victim machine, thereby forming a powerful DDoS attack. The most dangerous part of this method is that it completely lowers the traffic threshold for future DDoS attacks, because even if it is only 1/75 of the common DDoS traffic, even novice hackers can easily set off huge waves, just like possessing the sea of ​​law.

The first wave of DDoS amplification attacks using this new method appeared around February 17. Hackers attacked financial, travel, gaming, media and web hosting with 1.5 million packets per second and up to 11Gbps of traffic. Akamai customers in services and other industries.

A single 33 Bytes attack packet can trigger a 2,156 Bytes response packet
The core attack idea of ​​TCP radiation attack is to use Middlebox, a device used to enforce censorship regulations and corporate content filtering policies, to send specially crafted TCP packets to trigger a huge number of response packets. In one attack observed by Akamai, the company found that a single SYN packet containing a 33-byte packet payload could trigger a response packet of up to 2,156 bytes, with an astonishing 65x magnification (6,533%) .

Worryingly, as new technology dramatically lowers the threshold for DDoS attacks, more and more attackers have begun to create attack tools that utilize this new technology. In this regard, Akamai suggested that enterprises should re-examine their own security defense strategies based on this new attack method and method, so as to be more flexible and complete in response to the challenges of ever-changing DDoS attacks.

The information war started simultaneously, and the Ukrainian military received a large number of heart war messages and was attacked by DDoS

The second is to confuse cognitive types, such as pretending that Ukrainian officers and soldiers say “The commander of Kramatrosk has run away, the situation is very bad, and many of us have to dodge.” or “Derba Debaltseve’s troops and volunteers have been killed, we should flee!” Such messages try to confuse the morale of Ukrainian troops on the front lines.

There was also a text message pretending to be the central government of Kiev, which read, “Your account balance has been adjusted to 10 hryvnia (approximately TWD 9.50), and the country thanks you for your contribution to the anti-terrorist mission in the east.”

Because Russia has more advanced electronic warfare equipment, it can quickly locate and send text messages from the mobile phones of Ukrainian soldiers, and use the methods commonly used by fraud groups.

For example, first send “Leave, or you will die!” to the mobile phone of the Ukrainian army officer and soldier, and then send a message to the soldier’s family, telling them that “your son (husband) is dead,” and then call the soldier’s mobile phone when the line is busy, or immediately shelling The location of the mobile phone signal makes it impossible for the family to contact their relatives on the front line at the moment, causing panic in the rear.

Since yesterday, the Russian cyber army has carried out DDoS attacks on the Ukrainian government and military networks. With the influx of large-scale traffic in an instant, the network has been paralyzed. In the past few days, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense and many enterprises, banks website, often unavailable.

The UK’s National Cyber ​​Security Centre (NCSC) has warned that the Sandworm threat actor, a hacker group controlled by Russia’s military intelligence agency GRU (GRU), is focusing its cyberattacks on Ukraine.

Sandworm has used VPNFilter malware many times before, targeting unsuspecting routers or cloud hard drives on the corporate network. After hacking, the files are locked. Many European and American companies have been hit before, and were only recovered after being extorted by Sandworm for ransom. material.

NATO, to assist Ukraine in resisting the Russian cyber offensive, has dispatched a cyber army to Kiev consisting of experts from Poland, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Estonia, Croatia and Romania.

Although Ukraine itself is not as strong as Russia in electronic and information warfare, it has learned to use some techniques to confuse the enemy on the front line over the years.

For example, many Ukrainian front-line bunkers will hang the American flag, or deliberately use English for radio communication, pretending to be a member of the U.S. Navy SEAL or a member of the Green Flat Cap Special Forces, commanding operations on the front line, etc., to confuse the Ukrainian separatist forces or the Russian army. members, so that the other party does not dare to attack rashly.

At present, the Russian-Ukrainian war has officially started. It is expected that the Russian army will greatly increase the intensity of information warfare. The combat effect has yet to be confirmed by follow-up observation.