The Russian invasion of Ukraine poses an immediate humanitarian crisis due to traditional warfare tactics. However, in an increasingly digitized world, do technology decision-makers fear cybersecurity-based attacks within Ukraine and upon their own countries and businesses? One-Minute Insights on timely topics are available to Gartner Peer Insights members. Sign up for access to over 100 more, and new insights each week.

1. Cybersecurity
Impacts of the
Russian Invasion
of Ukraine

2. One Minute Insights:
Many decision makers
believe that Russia poses a
cyberthreat to their country,
and that there will be an
increase in cyberattacks
over the coming weeks
Over half believe that their
government is
underestimating the
cybersecurity threat Russia
poses to their country
Most believe that Russia
poses a cyberthreat to their
business, while many
believe their organizational
leadership has
underestimated this threat
The cyberthreat from Russia
on businesses has increased
since the invasion of
Ukraine

3. The volume and severity of
attacks on Ukraine are
expected to increase over
the coming weeks
Utilities are the top
identified target of concern
for cybersecurity attacks
from Russia
Ransomware is the top
identified Russian
cyberattack of concern

4. Cybersecurity Impacts of the
Russian Invasion of Ukraine
The Russian invasion of Ukraine poses an immediate
humanitarian crisis due to traditional warfare tactics. However,
in an increasingly digitized world, do technology decision
makers fear cybersecurity-based attacks within Ukraine and
upon their own countries and businesses?
One-Minute Insights on timely topics are available to Gartner
Peer Insights members. Sign up for access to over 100 more,
and new insights each week.
Data collection: March 11 - March 14, 2022
Respondents: 259 tech decision makers

5. Most believe Russia to be a growing
cybersecurity threat, and that their
government is underestimating that threat
Over three-quarters (79%) of decision makers think Russia
poses a cyberthreat to their country.
n = 259
Do you think Russia
poses a cyberthreat
to your country?
79%
Yes
10%
No
11%
Unsure

6. 88% of respondents think that the volume of cyberattacks
originating in Russia will increase over the coming weeks.
Do you think Russia will increase
or decrease the volume of
cyberattacks in your country
over the coming weeks?
n = 204
Significant
increase
Moderate
increase No change
Moderate
decrease
Significant
decrease
24%
64%
2%
7%
3%

7. The majority (84%) think cyberattacks originating in Russia
will increase in severity over the coming weeks.
Do you think Russia will
increase or decrease the
severity of cyberattacks
in your country over the
coming weeks?
27%
Significant increase
2%
Significant decrease
2%
Moderate decrease
12%
No change
57%
Moderate
increase
n = 204

8. Almost two-thirds (60%) of decision makers consider their
government to be underestimating the cybersecurity threat
Russia poses to their country.
Do you think your government has appropriately estimated
the cyberthreat Russia poses to your country?
54%
Somewhat
underestimated
32%
Appropriately
estimated
3%
Somewhat
overestimated
2%
Severely overestimated
3%
Not sure
6%
Severely underestimated
n = 259

9. “[We are] working with relevant
government agencies.”
“Threat Intelligence and correlated IoCs
[Indicators of Compromise] are critical for
monitoring systems and assets at higher risk
in this environment. Sharing threat Intel with
partners across the industry is paramount for
industry protection.”
- C-suite, software industry, 10,000+ employees
- Director, financial industry, 1,000 - 5,000 employees

10. The number of cyberattacks in Ukraine will
increase in volume and severity over the
coming weeks, many believe, while utilities is
the top identified target of concern
Looking specifically at
Ukraine, 81% of decision
makers believe that
Russia will increase the
volume of cybersecurity
attacks on Ukraine in the
coming weeks.
Do you think Russia will
increase or decrease the
volume of cyberattacks
in Ukraine over the
coming weeks?
n = 259
37%
Significant increase
44%
Moderate increase
2%
Significant decrease
16%
No change
2%
Moderate decrease

11. 82% of respondents think that Russia will increase the severity
of cybersecurity attacks on Ukraine in the coming weeks.
Do you think Russia will increase or decrease the severity
of cyberattacks in Ukraine over the coming weeks?
41%
Significant increase
41%
Moderate
increase
15%
No change
n = 259
Moderate decrease 2%,
Significant decrease 1%

12. Utilities (74%) is the top Russian
cyberattack target of concern
among decision makers, followed
by communications (66%) and
financial systems (63%).
What potential targets
of Russian cyberattacks
concern you the most?
74%
66%
63%
40%
28%
(e.g., gas,
electricity, water)
(e.g., internet,
telecom)
Financial systems
Government
services
Manufacturing/
supply chain
infrastructure
Utilities
Communications
Hospital systems 24%, Businesses aiding the Ukrainian resistance 21%,
Private citizens aiding the Ukrainian resistance 8% , Other 0% n = 259

13. “[We have] delegated some of the
employees to monitor Russian traffic.”
“We are monitoring the network connectivity
from Russia and Ukraine to our services.
- VP, software industry, 1,000 - 5,000 employees
- Director, financial industry, 5,000 - 10,000 employees

14. Do you think Russia poses a
cyberthreat to your business?
57%
Yes
24%
No
19%
Not sure
Just over half (57%) of decision makers believe that Russia
poses a cyberthreat to their business.
Over half believe Russia poses a cyberthreat
to their business, while many believe their
leadership has underestimated the threat
n = 259

15. Do you think the leadership at your company
has appropriately estimated the cyberthreat
Russia poses to your business?
Close to half of decision makers (44%) believe the leadership at
their organization has underestimated the cyberthreat Russia
poses on their business, though the same number (44%)
believes that leadership has appropriately estimated the threat.
40%
Somewhat
underestimated
44%
Appropriately
estimated
6%
Somewhat
overestimated
1%
Severely overestimated
4%
Severely
underestimated
n = 259
5%
Not sure

16. “We are not afraid of attacks aimed on us.
However, we inform our employees about
possible disinformation.”
“[We are] implementing SIEM, DLP, Threat
Hunting, URL Threat Protection, IDS/IPS.”
- C-suite, manufacturing industry, 10,000+ employees
- C-suite, financial industry, 5,000 - 10,000 employees

17. The cyberthreat from Russia on businesses
has increased since the invasion of Ukraine,
according to most, with ransomware the top
identified concern
Of those who think Russia poses a cyberthreat to their
business, 86% believe the threat has increased since the
invasion of Ukraine.
19%
Increased
significantly
67%
Increased
moderately
12%
Stayed
the same
Decreased significantly 0%
2%
Decreased
moderately
Do you think the cyberthreat Russia
poses to your business has increased or
decreased since the invasion of Ukraine?
n = 147

18. Ransomware (76%) is the top
identified cyberattack of
concern from Russia, followed by
phishing (68%) and DDoS (56%).
What kinds of attacks
originating from
Russia are you most
concerned about?
76%
Ransomware
68%
Phishing
56%
Distributed Denial of
Service (DDoS)
49%
Malware
40%
Data theft
Spyware 33%, SQL injection 23%, Other 1%, None of these 0% n = 147

19. “We are monitoring our backups very
carefully as the backups are surely any
attacker’s first priority.”
“We are trying to go back to the basics and
review the overall security posture and ensure
that gaps [are] not left open.”
- C-suite, manufacturing industry,
5,000 - 10,000 employees
- C-suite, manufacturing industry,
1,000 - 5,000 employees

20. “We are reviewing our Russian vendors.”
“For now I think we are safe but we certainly
need to prepare ourselves.”
- C-suite, financial industry, 5,000 - 10,000 employees
- C-suite, financial industry, 1,000 - 5,000 employees
“We are always doing all we can to protect
[ourselves] from cybersecurity threats.”
- C-suite, financial industry, 10,000+ employees

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22. Respondent Breakdown
Region
Company Size
Title
North America 76%
APAC8%
EMEA 16%
C-Suite
<1,001
employees
10,001+
employees
Director
VP
34%
30%
15%
1,001-5,000
employees
Manager
21%
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Source: Gartner Peer Insights, Cybersecurity Impacts of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine survey
5,001 - 10,000
employees
39% 25%
9%
27%