IT army of 300,000 people defended Ukraine against Russian cyberattacks

More than 300,000 people from different countries supported Ukraine in cyberspace, helping to defend critical infrastructure and repel attacks coming from Russia.

As Report informs, this was stated by the Head of the Information Security and Cybersecurity Service of the Secretariat of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine, Secretary of the National Coordination Center for Cybersecurity Nataliia Tkachuk at a conference within the framework of the Critical Infrastructure Defense Challenge 2025 (CIDC-2025) event.

According to Nataliia Tkachuk, the main lesson learned by Ukraine during the cyber war is that cybersecurity is crucial for national resilience.

"Previously, many doubted whether the state should spend large resources on cybersecurity, since any system can be hacked. However, on the day of the invasion, Russia attempted to attack all our critical systems - banks, energy, transport, mobile operators and telecommunications. We were prepared and preserved the country's cyber resilience," she noted.

According to the NSDC representative, only one cyberattack had a serious impact on Ukraine's defense capabilities.

"It was an attack on the company Assad, which provided satellite communications to our armed forces. However, this company is European, not Ukrainian, and protecting its systems was not our direct responsibility," Nataliia Tkachuk explained.

She emphasized that an important element of resistance was the IT army, created virtually spontaneously, without coordination with the government.

"Very quickly we managed to unite about 300,000 people - not only from Ukraine, but also from other countries. These cyber volunteers helped defend critical infrastructure and conducted retaliatory operations against Russia," Nataliia Tkachuk added.

According to her, each country should form a similar mechanism in advance.

"Now we are working on creating a cyber reserve, cyber teams and a legal framework for the functioning of cyber volunteers. Another important conclusion is the need for close cooperation with the private sector, development of trust networks and partnerships," emphasized the representative of the NSDC of Ukraine.