The internet has become a fifth battlefield, and cyber warfare, like ground-to-ground or air-to-land, has become another form of combat. We see evidence of this in the ongoing war in Ukraine. But what does Taiwan have to do with Eastern Europe? Well, for the Asian island, Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a crucial wake-up call.
Concerns about a Chinese invasion are already an inherent part of Taiwanese life, but witnessing the Russian attacks over the last month has already pushed some to prepare for a possible Chinese takeover. Foreign investors in Taiwan, for example, have already dumped shares worth over $17 Billion U.S. Dollars since the war on Ukraine began.
China has publicly-known intentions to conquer and subsume part or all of Taiwan. But unlike Ukraine, which has better ties to other Western countries, China has poached most of Taiwan's diplomatic partners and international union relations, leaving them meaningfully less supported than many other modern countries. And even with Ukraine having UN support and enjoying good diplomatic relations with the United States, they country has yet to receive major military or cyber security support from the world at a scale that can meet Russia's force. So what could Taiwan expect to receive if they were to be invaded?
The game plan for Taiwan should be clear - get ahead of the war. History has taught governments to take authoritarian leaders seriously. What they're saying isn't all bluster, and they usually have the means to carry out threats. Taiwan is currently considering extending its compulsory military service for young citizens to a year, but what about cyber warfare preparation? Countless cyber attacks from Russia have been rapidly hitting Ukraine, even seeing a Chinese threat actor joining the battlefield last week and targeting Ukraine. As its troops progress, Russia is also taking over Ukrainian infrastructure and leveraging it.
Most security solution providers use a spray and pray approach to cope with international cyber attacks, geo-blocking the attacker country and hoping for the best. But this tactic isn't comprehensive enough for modern wars where the internet is part of the invasion. At ThreatSTOP, our technology's use of broad and multi-faceted threat intelligence means we are uniquely able to track changes of control over network assets (such as Putin taking control of a Ukrainian telecom company). This precision enables companies and nations to accurately block communications to and from entities controlled by Russia, China, and other countries they don't want to be dealing with. And thanks to the automation and speed, these protections evolve in real-time as the news happens, closing gaps as they open to keep you secure and compliant with regulatory requirements and a shifting threat landscape.
Our extensive protection platform offers various ways to block Russian and Chinese IPs for every organization's needs:
Want to use AWS WAF to block ITAR-Sanctioned countries (including seized entities like Crimea)? Check out our AWS WAF Managed Rules
Want to block DNS traffic to sanctioned countries, and other threats? Check out DNS Defense
Want to prevent inbound attacks and machine-to-machine communications? IP Defense makes it easy
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