Ukraine ties hand with U.S. CISA

The CISA has signed an agreement with its counterpart in Ukraine to strengthen collaboration on shared cybersecurity priorities.

The MoU shows ties between Ukraine and the U.S are stronger. As the two nations increasingly face cyber threats from Russia amid its ongoing war with Ukraine.

The MoU outlines new priorities, including sharing cyber incident response best practices and critical infrastructure security protection data, as well as conducting cybersecurity training and joint exercises.

In Ukraine, six government agencies are responsible for information security: For many years, Ukrainian state cybersecurity agencies were underfinanced and couldn’t recruit talented specialists. When the war began, thousands of Ukrainian hacktivists organized their efforts and launched the IT Army that countered Russian cyberattacks without the support of government agencies.

During the war, Ukraine and the U.S. have already participated in joint cyber exercises. In April, for example, they took part in the Locked Shields competition — an international real-time cyber defense exercise organized by NATO.

Although Ukraine is not a NATO member, it was accepted this year into NATO’s cyber defense center, based in Tallinn. During the Locked Shields exercise, some Ukrainians teamed up with Americans, according to competition organizers.

Ukraine also signed a cybersecurity memorandum with Slovenia. Its goal is to exchange policymaking, legislative, judicial, educational, and scientific practices related to cybersecurity.