Encryption as a battleground in Ukraine
Résumé
To think about infrastructural politics today is to consider how internet infrastructures are defining contemporary geopolitical conflict. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 instigated an intense battle for control over Ukrainian informational
infrastructures on its temporarily occupied territories, including landlines, cables, and cell towers. Political use of internet infrastructure in war zones is more and more common. This makes encryption—an important but much less visible aspect of infrastructure than, for example, broken cables or shot down cell towers—an important battleground in Ukraine. By extension, this means digital security is one of the crucial components of the physical security of people living under Russian occupation. However, researching Ukrainian users’ online practices in times of war shows that, paradoxically, advanced encryption
is not always key to security. Rather, the war in Ukraine demonstrates that the physical and material functions of digital infrastructure, such as connectivity and internet access, can be more vital than privacy-enhancing technologies.
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Licence : CC BY SA - Paternité - Partage selon les Conditions Initiales