This article is part of the Ukraine in the Crosshairs digital issue.
The current conflict between Russia and Ukraine is tragic and it has worldwide implications. It’s all playing out in real-time on the internet and the news. While these events are very important to everyone, the coverage of them from a political and human view is best left to other publications. We will continue to focus on the unfolding situation as it impacts our readership from a technical view, and will highlight articles from other sister publications that you will find useful.
That said, the implications for designers and developers may be significant and long term. Russia and its allies, and Ukraine and Europe, provide products, resources, and human expertise that are used throughout the world. Our global supply chain has already been disrupted by COVID-19 and this simply piles on to an already broken system that was starting to recover.
Take, for instance, the butterfly effect of needing a tool that needs a component built by a special machine with software written by someone affected by the conflict. It’s just one example of how something you think might be remote from you could have a major consequence. Counterfeit and global shortages of electronic components is something we do cover.
The biggest impact of the war is physical, with weapons like tanks and guns causing deaths and damage in local locations. However, the use of cyberwarfare in this conflict is global. Initial and obvious targets like military command and control have cyberattacks occurring now, but cybersecurity is something that’s even more important these days.
Sanctions such as preventing Russia from using the SWIFT banking communication system highlight the electronic aspect of this conflict. Russia may turn to cryptocurrency in the future, which has implications from crypto farming hardware to its impact on availability of other electronics. Likewise, cyberattacks related to cryptocurrency could perturb other systems on the internet.
This conflict is unlikely to end well, and the human cost is already terrible.