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'Watch' or 'Stand Against' the Digital Machinery of Aggression in Ukraine

'Watch' or 'Stand Against' the Digital Machinery of Aggression in Ukraine

Global world telecommunication network with nodes connected around earth. Earth image from NASA (images-assets.nasa.gov/image/iss040e090540/iss040e090540~orig.jpg). Composition and network edited in Adobe Photoshop

OPINION — The machinery of aggression moves across the land of the people of Ukraine to their capital. There should be no words to argue with, let alone to aspire to, that shifts light from that dark reality. If the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe, and the nations of the world believe the machinery of that aggression can only move at the pace of physical geography, we are fools. If we hang our hope on that belief, then we will fail our responsibility to pursue our resolve. The machinery of that aggression will move at the speed of our digital co-dependencies.

The clearest example of the potential of aggression absent geography, is NotPetya. NotPetya was in 2017. NotPetya was unleashed through the indifference and irresponsibility of the very foe we all now condemn. The active indifference of this foe, through NotPetya, created outsized disruptive and destructive impacts on an expanse of our supply chains and business operations around the globe. We only expect in 2022, that we are prepared for more, but the potential impact of more is unacceptable, and if the equities we claim to serve are disrupted, it would be a terrible failure of our capabilities to work together.

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