Russia has deployed cyber operations to interfere in foreign elections, launch disinformation campaigns, and cripple neighboring states—all while maintaining a thin veneer of deniability and avoiding strikes that cross the line into acts of war. How should a targeted nation respond? In Russian Cyber Operations, Scott Jasper dives into the legal and technical maneuvers of Russian cyber strategies, proposing that nations develop solutions for resilience to withstand future attacks.
Jasper examines the place of cyber operations within Russia’s asymmetric arsenal and its use of hybrid and information warfare, considering examples from French and US presidential elections and the 2017 NotPetya mock ransomware attack, among others. A new preface to the paperback edition puts events since 2020 into context. Jasper shows that the international effort to counter these operations through sanctions and indictments has done little to alter Moscow’s behavior. Jasper instead proposes that nations use data correlation technologies in an integrated security platform to establish a more resilient defense.
Russian Cyber Operations provides a critical framework for determining whether Russian cyber campaigns and incidents rise to the level of armed conflict or operate at a lower level as a component of competition. Jasper’s work offers the national security community a robust plan of action critical to effectively mounting a durable defense against Russian cyber campaigns.
Capt. Scott Jasper, US Navy (Ret.), is a senior lecturer in the National Security Affairs Department at the US Naval Postgraduate School. He is the author of Strategic Cyber Deterrence: The Active Cyber Defense Option and the editor of Conflict and Cooperation in the Global Commons (Georgetown University Press, 2012), Securing Freedom in the Global Commons, and Transforming Defense Capabilities: New Approaches for International Security. He earned his PhD from the University of Reading, UK.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Gen. Keith Alexander, USA (Ret.)
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter 1. Analytical Framework
PART I. Cyber Operation
Chapter 2. Asymmetric Arsenal Tool
Chapter 3. Hybrid Warfare Element
Chapter 4. Information Warfare Component
PART II. Security Dynamics
Chapter 5. Rational State Behavior
Chapter 6. Unconvincing Responses
PART III. Defensive Solutions
Chapter 7. Current Security Measures
Chapter 8. Automated Cyber Defense
Chapter 9. Technical Offset Strategy
Conclusion
Index
About the Author
What People are Saying About This
Tim Maurer
How Russia understands, uses, and adapts its cyber operations is an important topic for scholars and decision-makers around the world. Scott Jasper provides a detailed analysis of past cyber incidents, combining it with an assessment of how [it is] aligned with international law and emerging norms for cyberspace. Equally important is the third part of Russian Cyber Operations providing food for thought on how to effectively protect and defend against cyber operations.
Timely, insightful, and will be valuable as people reflect on... an adversarial cyberspace future to come.
Terrorism and Political Violence
This slender but powerful volume offers new ways of appreciating Russia’s role in the world today.
Russian Review - Todd Landman
Timely, insightful, and will be valuable as people reflect on... an adversarial cyberspace future to come.
Brandon Valeriano
“In the battle to protect the global order and empower democracies throughout the world, Russia is our most dangerous adversary. Russian Cyber Operations makes an impressive contribution to the discourse and helps us better understand our digital enemies.”—Brandon Valeriano, Donald Bren Chair of Military Innovation, Marine Corps University
Proceedings
Jasper’s work is a thought-provoking and convincing read and is a wake-up call to revamp Russian deterrence strategies among Western institutions.
Strategic Studies Quarterly
Effectively combines and categorizes several previous strategic theories under a common cover ... I will be adding Russian Cyber Operations to my own cyber policy reference list.
H-Diplo
Solid empirical case studies of Russian cyber operations and their strategic context, as well as useful reviews of US legal and strategic responses and their shortcomings ... both general and specialist readers will find much sustenance within.
