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69076711

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepak%20Gupta%20%28researcher%29

Deepak Gupta (researcher)

Deepak Gupta is an Indian researcher, software developer, and writer. He is known as an author and editor of handbooks such as the Handbook of Computer Networks and Cyber Security and the Handbook of Research on Multimedia Cyber Security. Education Gupta earned a Master of Science in Computer Forensics and Cyber Security from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. As a graduate student, Gupta worked on and led VOIP-related research projects for Bell Labs. Career After finishing his graduate studies, Gupta worked at Sageworks. As a software developer, he created a centralized integration process for porting customers' data to the company's database. In 2011, Gupta founded CIAM and social API provider LoginRadius with his friend and co-founder Rakesh Soni. At first, it was based in Edmonton, Canada, but then later set up offices in San Francisco, California. It also has offices in Vancouver, Jaipur, and Hyderabad. Publications Gupta has written various articles and books on cybersecurity and various other IT topics. In 2018, Gupta contributed a chapter to the book Computer and Cyber Security: Principles, Algorithm, Applications, and Perspectives. He has served as an editor for the 2019 volume Handbook of Computer Networks and Cyber Security: Principles and Paradigms. Additionally, Gupta has served as an editor for the 2020 volume Handbook of Research on Multimedia Cyber Security. Gupta is also writing another book titled The Power of Digital Identity in 2021. He has also written articles for Forbes, FastCompany, DevOps.com, and others. Books Mishra, A., Gupta, B., & Gupta, D. (2018). Identity theft, malware, and social engineering in dealing with cybercrime. In Gupta, B., Agrawal, D. P., & Wang, H. (eds.). Computer and cyber security: Principles, algorithm, applications, and perspectives. (pp. 627–649). United States: CRC Press. Gupta, D., Agrawal, D. P., Perez, G. M., Gupta, B. B. (2019). Handbook of computer networks and cyber security: Principles and paradigms. Germany: Springer International Publishing. Gupta, B., & Gupta, D. (eds.). (2020). Handbook of research on multimedia cyber security. IGI Global, Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global). Research Gupta's patents include: Method and system for defense against Distributed Denial-of-Service attack, Peraković, D., Gupta, B.B., Gupta, D., Mishra, A., AU2021102049A Method and system of performing a fine-grained searchable encryption for resource-constrained devices in m-health network, Nguyen, T., Castiglione, A., Gupta, B.B., Gupta, D., Mamta, AU2021102048A4 References Indian software engineers Scientists at Bell Labs Illinois Institute of Technology alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people)

69095311

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry%20of%20Internal%20Affairs%20III

Ministry of Internal Affairs III

Department III of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (), also known as the State Security Department of the Ministry of Interior (), was the secret police of the Hungarian People's Republic after the State Protection Authority (AVH) was disbanded in 1956. The MIA III was called the AVH as a derogatory name due to the former replacing the latter in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Archived data related to the AVH and MIA III are made available through the Historical Archives of the Hungarian State Security. History The Ministry of Interior created Department II in order to replace the State Protection Authority in 1956 as the Political Investigation Department, which operated from 1956 to 1962. The department was further reorganized under András Tömpe because of a scandal that involved a Hungarian military officer named Béla Lapusnyik, who sought asylum to the West through Austria in May 1962. From 1962 to 1964, the state security structure was reorganized with the renaming of the department as MIA III. According to a statement made by János Kenedi on January 1, 1971, the department had 3,975 staff members, with 242 members serving in the III/III Department. The statement also mentioned that around 11,000 to 17,000 MIA III officers were also working in the department. In 1978, Section 261 of the Hungarian Criminal Code came into effect, providing legal measures against terrorism. In 1979, the department was instructed by the Hungarian Interior Ministry to work with the Rendőrség as terrorism was made a state security task. Department III/II-8 was tasked to take command of sections involved in fighting against terrorism, including Departments III/I, III/II, III/III and III/IV. In the early 1980s reorganization of the entire state security apparatus took place as a response to the increasing number of tasks. Department III/I-8 was divided into Department III/II-9 and Department III/II-10. Department III/II-9 was tasked with warrants. Department III/II-10, which was formed from the former sub-departments III/II-8-B and C, was tasked with controlling tourism and terrorism, with counterterrorism being specifically the task of sub-department III/II-10-A. Department III/II-10 also worked with the Action Subsection of the Rendőrség to conduct periodic raids against Turkish and Arabic individuals suspected of terrorism, arresting, expelling, and initiating criminal procedures against them with the aim of forcing them from the country. By 1987, Ministry of the Interior agencies had compiled files on the Organization of International Revolutionaries (OIR), Abu Nidal Organization, Grey Wolves, and Muslim Brotherhood. Hungarian authorities had mixed relations with terrorist groups in the 1980s. Various international terrorists found temporary refuge or attempted to establish bases of operation in Hungary in the 1970s and 80s, such as Basque, Turkish, Kurdish, Irish, and other groups, though they were surveilled. Some organizations were provided state support, such T-34 tanks and training given to the Palestinian Liberation Front in 1979, though its leader Muhammad Zaidan was forced out of Hungary after the Achille Lauro hijacking in 1985. Venezuelan terrorist Carlos the Jackal was allowed to operate from headquarters in Budapest during the early half of the 1980s, though state security closely surveilled him under confidential investigation C-79 and attempted to persuade him to leave. After Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's headquarters in Munich was bombed by Carlos on February 21, 1981, and with pressure from the United States, MIA III worked with Czechoslovak and East German intelligence to curb Carlos' activities throughout Eastern Europe and eventually drive him and his group out of Hungary in 1985. MIA III was also involved in removing ANO's Hungarian base in 1986, likely due to pressure from the US, in confidential investigation N-86. The change from state tolerance to intolerance of terrorists during the 1980s was due to politics. As Hungary opened foreign relations with non-communist countries, including Israel, and pressure from the Soviet Union decreased, the threat of terrorism against Hungarians grew, as did the counterterrorism department. In 1989, it collaborated fully with Japanese and South Korean agencies in an investigation of the Japanese Red Army. In January 1990, the department was disbanded. The Military Intelligence Office and the Military Security Office were the first post-communist intelligence agencies to be created as the successor to MIA III. Structure MIA III was organized in the Hungarian Interior Ministry with the following structure: Department III/1 (Intelligence) III/I-1: Intelligence against the US and other international organizations III/I-2: Foreign Intelligence III/I-3: Intelligence against West Germany III/I-4: Intelligence against the Vatican, Israel and Church Emigration III/I-5: Scientific and Technical Intelligence III/I-6: Information, Evaluation and Analysis III/I-7: Intelligence against émigré groups III/I-8: Intelligence and employment of illegal residencies III/I-9: Documentation III/I-10: Personal affairs, training and methodology III/I-11: Intelligence against third-party countries III/I-12: Connections, Regitration, Finances and other related tasks III/I-13: National Encryption Center, including encryption/decryption operations III/I-X: Organization of operational connection III/I-Y: Security on foreign missions and residencies Dpeartment III/2 (Counter-Intelligence) III/II-1: Counter-Intelligence against the US and Latin America III/II-2: Counter-Intelligence against Austria and West Germany III/II-3: Counter-Intelligence against NATO and neutral countries III/II-4: Counter-Intelligence against Middle Eastern and Far East Asian countries III/II-5: Cross-border operational measures III/II-6: Protective measures for military industries, transport, communications, authorities and ministries III/II-7: Responses to areas under international cooperation III/II-8: Protective measures for field of tourism and for Hungarians returning with amnesty III/II-9: Analysis, evaluation and information III/II-10: International cooperation and responses in third country III/II-11: News communication, operational records and supplies Department III/3 (Internal Reaction & Sabotage) III/III-1: Operates usually together with Department III/I against churches/religious sects, including former priests/monks in émigré groups III/III-1-a: Internal Reaction against the Roman Catholic Church III/III-1-b: Internal Reaction against Roman Catholic Church leaders and institutes III/III-1-c: Internal Reaction against Protestant and other religious groups III/III-2: Preventive measures with young people in universities, colleges, youth clubs, galleries, etc. III/III-2-a: Preventive measures in higher education institutions III/III-2-b: Operations against anti-youth reaction forces III/III-3: Controlling activities against persons deemed dangerous III/III-3-a: Inspection of F files, mostly on former political prisoners III/III-3-b: Checks against flyers and graffiti III/III-4: Countermeasures against opposition groups III/III-4-a: Proceedings against radical opponents III/III-4-b: Surveillance on Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (HSWP) officials, Trotskyists and pseudo-leftists III/III-4-c: Countermeasurse against national opposition groups III/III-5: Protection of cultural property III/III-5-a: Preventive measures against Hungarian Radio and Television, MTI, MUOSZ and the Writers' Association III/III-5-b: Preventive measures against groups associated with fine arts, music, museums, theaters, circuses, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, film, universities, colleges, homosexuals and demonstrations against the Bős-Nagymaros dam. III/III-6: Prevention operations of hostile propaganda material III/III-7: Reporting service, internal troubleshooting, data warehouse and record keeping III/III-8: III/III-A: Protection operations for HSWP officials III/III-B: Independent analysis, evaluation and information Department III/4 (Military Response) III/IV-1: Responsive measures to Central Bodies and forces under General Staff of the Hungarian People's Army and to the Military Areas of the Ministries III/IV-2: Responsive measures to Areas of the Central Bodies of the Ministry of Defense, Armed Forces Headquarters, institutions and subordinate forces III/IV-3: Preventive measures in 5th Army III/IV-4: Preventive measures in air defense III/IV-5: Preventive measures in 3rd Corps III/IV-6: Preventive measures in Hinterland Headquarters III/IV-7: Preventive measures in Border Guard Area III/IV: Coordination subdivision on escaped soldiers and civilian staff, planning and implementation of central control Evaluation, Analysis, Data Processing and Propaganda Department Battlefield preparation subdivision - Intelligence in the expected areas of application of the Hungarian People's Army (Italy, Austria) Organizational, mobilization and news subdivision Department III/5 (Technical Operations) III/V-1: Class K Inspections III/V-2: Chemistry, printing technology and document production III/V-3: Maintenance and operation of operational and technical equipment III/V: Independent evaluation, monitoring, expert and economic subdivisions Department III/1 (Investigation Division) III/1-A: Counter-espionage III/1-B: Internal Reaction preventive measures III/1-C: Military matters III/1-D: Evaluation, analysis and records III/1-E: Legal opinions and resolution III/1-F: Prison operations and networks III/1-G: Watchkeeping III/2: Operational Monitoring and Environmental Analysis Department III/3: Postal Items Intercepts III/4: Information, Evaluation and International Relations Department (Regular Intercepts) III/5: Radio Response Department III/6: Personnel Department References Bibliography External links Secret police Collaborators with the Soviet Union Defunct Hungarian intelligence agencies Ministry of Interior III Eastern Bloc

69122776

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector%20overlay

Vector overlay

Vector overlay is an operation (or class of operations) in a geographic information system (GIS) for integrating two or more vector spatial data sets. Terms such as polygon overlay, map overlay, and topological overlay are often used synonymously, although they are not identical in the range of operations they include. Overlay has been one of the core elements of spatial analysis in GIS since its early development. Some overlay operations, especially Intersect and Union, are implemented in all GIS software and are used in a wide variety of analytical applications, while others are less common. Overlay is based on the fundamental principle of geography known as areal integration, in which different topics (say, climate, topography, and agriculture) can be directly compared based on a common location. It is also based on the mathematics of set theory and point-set topology. The basic approach of a vector overlay operation is to take in two or more layers composed of vector shapes, and output a layer consisting of new shapes created from the topological relationships discovered between the input shapes. A range of specific operators allows for different types of input, and different choices in what to include in the output. History Prior to the advent of GIS, the overlay principle had developed as a method of literally superimposing different thematic maps (typically an isarithmic map or a chorochromatic map) drawn on transparent film (e.g., cellulose acetate) to see the interactions and find locations with specific combinations of characteristics. The technique was largely developed by landscape architects. Warren Manning appears to have used this approach to compare aspects of Billerica, Massachusetts, although his published accounts only reproduce the maps without explaining the technique. Jacqueline Tyrwhitt published instructions for the technique in an English textbook in 1950, including: Ian McHarg was perhaps most responsible for widely publicizing this approach to planning in Design with Nature (1969), in which he gave several examples of projects on which he had consulted, such as transportation planning and land conservation. The first true GIS, the Canada Geographic Information System (CGIS), developed during the 1960s and completed in 1971, was based on a rudimentary vector data model, and one of the earliest functions was polygon overlay. Another early vector GIS, the Polygon Information Overlay System (PIOS), developed by ESRI for San Diego County, California in 1971, also supported polygon overlay. It used the Point in polygon algorithm to find intersections quickly. Unfortunately, the results of overlay in these early systems was often prone to error. In 1975, Thomas Peucker and Nicholas Chrisman of the Harvard Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis introduced the POLYVRT data model, one of the first to explicitly represent topological relationships and attributes in vector data. They envisioned a system that could handle multiple "polygon networks" (layers) that overlapped by computing Least Common Geographic Units (LCGU), the area where a pair of polygons overlapped, with attributes inherited from the original polygons. Chrisman and James Dougenik implemented this strategy in the WHIRLPOOL program, released in 1979 as part of the Odyssey project to develop a general-purpose GIS. This system implemented several improvements over the earlier approaches in CGIS and PIOS, and its algorithm became part of the core of GIS software for decades to come. Algorithm The goal of all overlay operations is to take in vector layers, and create a layer that integrates both the geometry and the attributes of the inputs. Usually, both inputs are polygon layers, but lines and points are allowed in many operations, with simpler processing. Since the original implementation, the basic strategy of the polygon overlay algorithm has remained the same, although the vector data structures that are used have evolved. Given the two input polygon layers, extract the boundary lines. Cracking part A: In each layer, identify edges shared between polygons. Break each line at the junction of shared edges and remove duplicates to create a set of topologically planar connected lines. In early topological data structures such as POLYVRT and the ARC/INFO coverage, the data was natively stored this way, so this step was unnecessary. Cracking part B: Find any intersections between lines from the two inputs. At each intersection, split both lines. Then merge the two line layers into a single set of topologically planar connected lines. Assembling part A: Find each minimal closed ring of lines, and use it to create a polygon. Each of these will be a least common geographic unit (LCGU), with at most one "parent" polygon from each of the two inputs. Assembling part B: Create an attribute table that includes the columns from both inputs. For each LCGU, determine its parent polygon from each input layer, and copy its attributes into the LCGU's row the new table; if was not in any of the polygons for one of the input layers, leave the values as null. Parameters are usually available to allow the user to calibrate the algorithm for a particular situation. One of the earliest was the snapping or fuzzy tolerance, a threshold distance. Any pair of lines that stay within this distance of each other are collapsed into a single line, avoiding unwanted narrow sliver polygons that can occur when lines that should be coincident (for example, a river and a boundary that should follow it de jure) are digitized separately with slightly different vertices. Operators The basic algorithm can be modified in a number of ways to return different forms of integration between the two input layers. These different overlay operators are used to answer a variety of questions, although some are far more commonly implemented and used than others. The most common are closely analogous to operators in set theory and boolean logic, and have adopted their terms. As in these algebraic systems, the overlay operators may be commutative (giving the same result regardless of order) and/or associative (more than two inputs giving the same result regardless of the order in which they are paired). Intersect (ArcGIS, QGIS, Manifold, TNTmips; AND in GRASS): The result includes only the LCGUs where the two input layers intersect (overlap); that is, those with both "parents." This is identical to the set theoretic intersection of the input layers. Intersect is probably the most commonly used operator in this list. Commutative, associative Union (ArcGIS, QGIS, Manifold, TNTmips; or in GRASS): The result includes all of the LCGUs, both those where the inputs intersect and where they do not. This is identical to the set theoretic union of the input layers. Commutative, associative Subtract (TNTmips; Erase in ArcGIS; Difference in QGIS; not in GRASS; missing from Manifold): The result includes only the portions of polygons in one layer that do not overlap with the other layer; that is, the LCGUs that have no parent from the other layer. Non-commutative, non-associative Exclusive or (Symmetrical Difference in ArcGIS, QGIS; Exclusive Union in TNTmips; XOR in GRASS; missing from Manifold): The result includes the portions of polygons in both layers that do not overlap; that is, all LCGUs that have one parent. This could also be achieved by computing the intersection and the union, then subtracting the intersection from the union, or by subtracting each layer from the other, then computing the union of the two subtractions. Commutative, associative Clip (ArcGIS, QGIS, GRASS, Manifold; Extract Inside in TNTmips): The result includes the portions of polygons of one layer where they intersect the other layer. The outline is the same as the intersection, but the interior only includes the polygons of one layer rather than computing the LCGUs. Non-commutative, non-associative Cover (Update in ArcGIS and Manifold; Replace in TNTmips; not in QGIS or GRASS): The result includes one layer intact, with the portions of the polygons of the other layer only where the two layers do not intersect. It is called "cover" because the result looks like one layer is covering the other; it is called "update" in ArcGIS because the most common use is when the two layers represent the same theme, but one represents recent changes (e.g., new parcels) that need to replace the older ones in the same location. It can be replicated by subtracting one layer from the other, then computing the union of that result with the original first layer. Non-commutative, non-associative Divide (Identity in ArcGIS and Manifold; not in QGIS, TNTmips, or GRASS): The result includes all of the LCGUs that cover one of the input layers, excluding those that are only in the other layer. It is called "divide" because it has the appearance of one layer being used to divide the polygons of the other layer. It can be replicated by computing the intersection, then subtracting one layer from the other, then computing the union of these two results. Non-commutative, non-associative Boolean overlay algebra One of the most common uses of polygon overlay is to perform a suitability analysis, also known as a suitability model or multi-criteria evaluation. The task is to find the region that meets a set of criteria, each of which can be represented by a region. For example, the habitat of a species of wildlife might need to be A) within certain vegetation cover types, B) within a threshold distance of a water source (computed using a buffer), and C) not within a threshold distance of significant roads. Each of the criteria can be considered boolean in the sense of Boolean logic, because for any point in space, each criterion is either present or not present, and the point is either in the final habitat area or it is not (acknowledging that the criteria may be vague, but this requires more complex fuzzy suitability analysis methods). That is, which vegetation polygon the point is in is not important, only whether it is suitable or not suitable. This means that the criteria can be expressed as a Boolean logic expression, in this case, H = A and B and not C. In a task such as this, the overlay procedure can be simplified because the individual polygons within each layer are not important, and can be dissolved into a single boolean region (consisting of one or more disjoint polygons but no adjacent polygons) representing the region that meets the criterion. With these inputs, each of the operators of Boolean logic corresponds exactly to one of the polygon overlay operators: intersect = AND, union = OR, subtract = AND NOT, exclusive or = XOR. Thus, the above habitat region would be generated by computing the intersection of A and B, and subtracting C from the result. Thus, this particular use of polygon overlay can be treated as an algebra that is homomorphic to Boolean logic. This enables the use of GIS to solve many spatial tasks that can be reduced to simple logic. Lines and points Vector overlay is most commonly performed using two polygon layers as input and creating a third polygon layer. However, it is possible to perform the same algorithm (parts of it at least) on points and lines. The following operations are typically supported in GIS software: Intersect: The output will be of the same dimension as the lower of the inputs: Points * {Points, Lines, Polygons} = Points, Lines * {Lines, Polygons} = Lines. This is often used as a form of spatial join, as it merges the attribute tables of the two layers analogous to a table join. An example of this would be allocating students to school districts. Because it is rare for a point to exactly fall on a line or another point, the fuzzy tolerance is often used here. QGIS has separate operations for computing a line intersection as lines (to find coincident lines) and as points. Subtract: The output will be of the same dimension as the primary input, with the subtraction layer being of the same or lesser dimension: Points - {Points, Lines, Polygons} = Points, Lines - {Lines, Polygons} = Lines Clip: While the primary input can be points or lines, the clipping layer is usually required to be polygons, producing the same geometry as the primary input, but only including those features (or parts of lines) that are within the clipping polygons. This operation might also be considered a form of spatial query, as it retains the features of one layer based on its topological relationship to another. Union: Normally, both input layers are expected to be of the same dimensionality, producing an output layer including both sets of features. ArcGIS and GRASS do not allow this option with points or lines. Implementations Vector Overlay is included in some form in virtually every GIS software package that supports vector analysis, although the interface and underlying algorithms vary significantly. Esri GIS software has included polygon overlay since the first release of ARC/INFO in 1982. Each generation of Esri software (ARC/INFO, ArcGIS, ArcGIS Pro) has included a set of separate tools for each of the overlay operators (Intersect, Union, Clip, etc.). The current implementation in ArcGIS Pro recently added an alternative set of "Pairwise Overlay" tools (as of v2.7) that uses parallel processing to more efficiently process very large datasets. GRASS GIS (open source), although it was originally raster-based, has included overlay as part of its vector system since GRASS 3.0 (1988). Most of the polygon overlay operators are collected into a single v.overlay command, with v.clip as a separate command. QGIS (open source) originally incorporated GRASS as its analytical engine, but has gradually developed its own processing framework, including vector overlay. Manifold System implements overlay in its transformation system. The Turf Javascript API includes the most common overlay methods, although these operate on individual input polygon objects, not on entire layers. TNTmips includes several tools for overlay among its vector analysis process. References External links The Overlay toolset documentation in Esri ArcGIS v.overlay command documentation in GRASS GIS Vector Overlay documentation in QGIS Topology Overlays documentation in Manifold GIS software Geographic information systems

69167071

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%20of%20cryptosystems

List of cryptosystems

A cryptosystem is a set of cryptographic algorithms that map ciphertexts and plaintexts to each other. Private-key cryptosystems Private-key cryptosystems use the same key for encryption and decryption. Caesar cipher Substitution cipher Enigma machine Data Encryption Standard Twofish Serpent Camellia Salsa20 ChaCha20 Blowfish CAST5 Kuznyechik RC4 3DES Skipjack Safer IDEA Advanced Encryption Standard, also known as AES and Rijndael. Public-key cryptosystems Public-key cryptosystems use a public key for encryption and a private key for decryption. Diffie–Hellman key exchange RSA encryption Rabin cryptosystem Schnorr signature ElGamal encryption Elliptic-curve cryptography Lattice-based cryptography McEliece cryptosystem Multivariate cryptography Isogeny-based cryptography References Cryptography Algorithms

69197927

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National%20Institute%20of%20Cryptology%20Research%20and%20Development

National Institute of Cryptology Research and Development

National Institute of Cryptology Research and Development (NICRD) is a national-level research center for cryptologic education and research. History The institute was established in 2007 at Hyderabad. It is one of the institutes which comes under the purview of National Technical Research Organisation. The other one is National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre. It was envisoned to house Simulation laboratories, digital fortress laboratories for financial security and design. And, to develop encryption products for national security-related critical applications. References Cyber Security in India Cryptologic education Computer security organizations Indian intelligence agencies

69304107

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yandex.Cloud

Yandex.Cloud

Yandex.Cloud is a public cloud platform developed by the Russian internet company Yandex. Yandex.Cloud provides private and corporate users with infrastructure and computing resources in an ‘as a service’ format. History Yandex's plans to enter the public cloud market have been known since 2016, but the first news about the development of the service appeared in 2017 when Yan Leshchinsky, who had previously worked on cloud platforms at Microsoft, Salesforce and AWS, joined the company. Closed testing of Yandex.Cloud began in April 2018 with the participation of over 50 large Russian and international companies, including Tinkoff Bank, X5 Retail Group, S7 and Skyeng. The platform was presented in a technical preview in September 2018. The user base and revenue of the platform grew consistently, so in October 2020, Yandex moved Yandex.Cloud from an experimental direction to an independent business unit. Structure The Yandex.Cloud platform uses the same infrastructure as the main Yandex services and is located in the same data centers. Many Yandex.Cloud components are based on the company's internal tools, originally developed for in-company use. Open-source software is also used: KVM for the hypervisor, Tungsten Fabric (OpenContrail) for software-defined networking, etc. As the first Russian partner of Nvidia GPU Cloud (NGC), Yandex.Cloud provides access to specialized applications which are optimized for Nvidia GPUs[6] for working with artificial intelligence, machine learning, neural networks and high-performance computing. Services Yandex.Cloud includes infrastructure and data management services, tools for developing cloud applications and machine learning models, as well as proprietary ML-based services: Infrastructure and Network Compute Cloud (VMs and disks) Object Storage (scalable data storage) Cloud Interconnect (dedicated network connections) API Gateway (integration with Yandex.Cloud services via the API) Network Load Balancer Application Load Balancer Virtual Private Cloud (cloud network management) DDoS Protection Сloud DNS (domain name management) Data Platform Yandex Managed Service (MS) for PostgreSQL MS for ClickHouse MS for MySQL MS for Redis MS for MongoDB MS for Elasticsearch MS for Apache Kafka. MS for SQL Server MS for Greenplum Data Proc (Apache Hadoop cluster management) Data Transfer (database migration) Message Queue (queues for messaging between applications). Container-based Development Managed Service for Kubernetes (Kubernetes cluster management) Container Registry (docker image management) Serverless Computing Cloud Functions (running code as a function) Database (distributed, fault-tolerant NewSQL DBMS) Yandex IoT Core (Internet of Things solutions) Security Key Management Service (encryption key management) Certificate Manager (TLS certificate management) Lockbox (creation and storage of confidential information) Resources and Management Monitoring (gathering and visualization of metrics) Identity and Access Management (for cloud resources) Resource Manager (for catalogues and clouds) Machine Learning DataSphere (development of ML models) SpeechKit (speech recognition and synthesis) Translate (machine translation supporting over 90 languages) Vision (image analysis with ML models) Business Tools Tracker (teamwork organization) DataLens (data analysis and visualization) Security Yandex.Cloud complies with the requirements of ISO/IEC information security standard 27001:2013 and is the first cloud platform in Russia and the CIS countries to be certified in accordance with the information security standard ISO/IEC 27017:2015 and the standard for the protection of personal data ISO/IEC 27018:2019, which take into account the specifics of cloud services. Yandex.Cloud's hardware base is located in the same data centers as Yandex's other services, but physically separated by hardware firewalls. Inside Yandex.Cloud, a HIPS is used, and ACL access control is applied at the top-of-rack switch level. For virtual machines, the QEMU/KVM assembly is used with a minimum set of code and libraries, and all processes are launched under the control of AppArmor. The platform complies with the requirements of the European Union's GDPR and ensures the level of protection of personal data according to Russian Federal Law No. 152 "On Personal Data" up to Security Level 1, complies with the GOST R 57580 security standard established by the regulations of the Bank of Russia. Yandex.Cloud is also the first public cloud in Russia that has confirmed compliance with the PCI DSS standard for all categories of services: IaaS, SaaS, PaaS and serverless computing. Management and Financial Indicators Yan Leshchinsky became the first head of Yandex.Cloud. In June 2020, he was replaced by Alexey Bashkeev, who had previously led the development of cloud infrastructure for Yandex's own services, including those that later became components of Yandex.Cloud. By the beginning of 2021, Yandex.Cloud was serving 9700 commercial customers (a 1.4X increase), including 270 large companies, providing about half of its 1 billion RUB revenue. 60% of revenue came from infrastructure services, followed by ML (14%) and data technologies (12%). References Yandex Cloud computing providers Cloud infrastructure Cloud platforms Web services Online companies of Russia

69611898

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ChaCha20-Poly1305

ChaCha20-Poly1305

ChaCha20-Poly1305 is an Authenticated encryption with additional data (AEAD) algorithm, that combines the ChaCha20 stream cipher with the Poly1305 message authentication code. Its usage in IETF protocols is standardized in RFC 8439. It has fast software performance, and without hardware acceleration, is usually faster than AES-GCM. History The two building blocks of the construction, the algorithms Poly1305 and ChaCha20, were both independently designed, in 2005 and 2008, by Daniel J. Bernstein. In 2013–2014, a variant of the original ChaCha20 algorithm (using 32-bit counter and 96-bit nonce) and a variant of the original Poly1305 (authenticating 2 strings) were combined in an IETF draft to be used in TLS and DTLS, and chosen by Google, for security and performance reasons, as a newly supported cipher. Shortly after Google's adoption for TLS, ChaCha20, Poly1305 and the combined AEAD mode are added to OpenSSH via [email protected] authenticated encryption cipher but kept the original 64-bit counter and 64-bit nonce for the ChaCha20 algorithm. In 2015, the AEAD algorithm is standardized in RFC 7539 and RFC 7905 to be used in TLS 1.2 and DTLS 1.2 and in RFC 7634 to be used in IPsec. The same year, it is integrated in Cloudflare as an alternative ciphersuite. In June 2018, the RFC 7539 is updated and replaced by RFC 8439. ChaCha20-Poly1305 is currently being standardized for use in QUIC. Description The ChaCha20-Poly1305 algorithm as described in RFC 8439 take as input a 256-bit key and a 96-bit nonce to encrypt a plaintext, with a ciphertext expansion of 128-bit (the tag size). In the ChaCha20-Poly1305 construction, ChaCha20 is used in counter mode to derive a key stream that is XORed with the plaintext. The ciphertext and the associated data is then authenticated using a variant of Poly1305 that first encodes the two strings into one. Variants XChaCha20-Poly1305 - Extended Nonce Variant The XChaCha20-Poly1305 construction is an extended 192-bit nonce variant of the ChaCha20-Poly1305 construction, using XChaCha20 instead of ChaCha20. When choosing nonces at random, the XChaCha20-Poly1305 construction allows for better security than the original construction. The draft attempt to standardize the construction expired in July 2020. Salsa20-Poly1305 and XSalsa20-Poly1305 Salsa20-Poly1305 and XSalsa20-Poly1305 are variants of the ChaCha20-Poly1305 and XChaCha20-Poly1305 algorithms, using Salsa20 and XSalsa20 in place of ChaCha20 and XChaCha20. They are implemented in NaCl and libsodium but not standardized. The variants using ChaCha is preferred in practice as it provides better diffusion per round than Salsa. Use ChaCha20-Poly1305 is used in IPsec, SSH, TLS 1.2, DTLS 1.2, TLS 1.3, QUIC, WireGuard, S/MIME 4.0, OTRv4 and multiple other protocols. Among others, it is implemented in OpenSSL, OpenSSH and libsodium. Performance ChaCha20-Poly1305 usually offers better performance than the more prevalent AES-GCM algorithm on systems where the CPU does not feature hardware acceleration. As a result, ChaCha20-Poly1305 is sometimes preferred over AES-GCM in certain use cases involving mobile devices, which mostly use ARM-based CPUs. Security The ChaCha20-Poly1305 construction is proven secure in the standard model and the ideal permutation model, for the single- and multi-user setting. However, similarly to GCM, the security relies on choosing a unique nonce for every message encrypted. Compared to AES-GCM, implementations of ChaCha20-Poly1305 are less vulnerable to timing attacks. See also Authenticated encryption Galois/Counter Mode Salsa20 Poly1305 External links RFC 8439: ChaCha20 and Poly1305 for IETF Protocols RFC 7634: ChaCha20, Poly1305, and Their Use in the Internet Key Exchange Protocol (IKE) and IPsec RFC 7905: ChaCha20-Poly1305 Cipher Suites for Transport Layer Security (TLS) RFC 8103: Using ChaCha20-Poly1305 Authenticated Encryption in the Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS) References Authenticated-encryption schemes Message authentication codes Stream ciphers Finite fields

69626669

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation%20Rubicon%20%28Crypto%20AG%29

Operation Rubicon (Crypto AG)

Operation Rubicon (German: Operation Rubikon), until the late 1980s called Operation Thesaurus, was a secret operation by the West German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), lasting from 1970 to 1993 and 2018, respectively, to gather communication intelligence of encrypted government communications of other countries. This was accomplished through the sale of manipulated encryption technology (CX-52) from Swiss-based Crypto AG, which was secretly owned and influenced by the two services from 1970 onwards. In a comprehensive CIA historical account of the operation leaked in early 2020, it was referred to as the "intelligence coup of the century" in a Washington Post article. History The origins of Crypto AG go back to the Swedish engineer Arvid Damm; the company was founded in Switzerland in 1948 by the Swede Boris Hagelin. Crypto AG was considered one of the leading manufacturers of encryption technology. The company supplied to about 130 states; Operation Rubicon is said to have affected about 100 states. According to the Washington Post, the nuclear powers India and Pakistan as well as the Vatican and several other countries, mostly from the global south, used devices from Crypto AG. However, the manipulated devices from Crypto AG also allowed the National Security Agency (NSA) and BND to read the military and diplomatic communications of allied EU or NATO countries such as Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Turkey across the board. According to german government media ZDF, there were repeated disputes between the CIA and BND about this: German intelligence did not want allies to be spied on, while the CIA wanted to spy on basically every government. According to ZDF, the contract for the operation was signed on the German side by the then head of the Federal Chancellery and Federal Minister for Special Tasks Horst Ehmke. In this respect, it can be assumed that the Federal Chancellery, as the superior authority, was informed about the operation. When the BND and CIA began operations in 1970, the two intelligence agencies each became half owners of Crypto AG. Within Operation Rubikon, Crypto AG was given the code name Minerva. The ownership structure was concealed. They bought Crypto AG because Boris Hagelin retired and they had no confidence in Hagelin's son Boris Jr. The latter was sales manager for North and South America. He died in a car accident the same year. His father had the cause of the accident investigated and did not believe it was an accident. Crypto AG profited externally from Swiss neutrality and the image of the country's integrity. Through encryption technology sold as secure, but in reality manipulated, messages transmitted could be read by the CIA, NSA and BND intelligence agencies involved. The Munich-based Siemens AG worked closely with Crypto AG and, among other things, manufactured the teleprinters for them. Siemens provided the management of Crypto AG for 20 years and had a five percent share of the profits. Siemens engineers helped develop the application equipment. According to reports by Deutsche Welle (DW), the two owners, BND and CIA, shared Crypto AG's profits, which in 1975 amounted to 51 million Swiss francs (about 48.6 million German marks; in 2018, taking inflation into account, the equivalent of 42.6 million euros). According to DW, BND employees allegedly handed over their share to the CIA in cash at secret meetings in underground garages. In 1992, Hans Bühler, a Swiss employee of Crypto AG, was detained in Iran. After nine and a half months in custody, he was released on January 4, 1994, on payment of 1.4 billion rial bail (about 925,000 euros or 1.5 million Swiss francs), after originally being asked for $1 million. The amount was paid by the German BND, but Bühler was fired by his employer shortly after his release. It later emerged that Bühler had not known about the tampered devices and had begun to make critical comments about the operation to the media. According to CIA accounts, the Hydra affair, the internal code name for what happened to Bühler, was "the most serious security breach in the history of the program." In 1993, the BND sold its shares in Crypto AG for $17 million. According to former Chancellery Minister under Helmut Kohl Bernd Schmidbauer, the Chancellery decided to pull out of the operation because the political risks were now rated much higher after Bühler's arrest. For example, the threat situation for Germany was apparently assessed differently after the end of the Cold War than in previous years, and relations between the states of Europe improved. After the U.S. withdrew from the company, Crypto AG was split into two companies in 2018. The new management had no knowledge of activities prior to 2018, the company stated when asked. On the part of the BND, the Zentralstelle für das Chiffrierwesen (ZfCh) apparently played an important role in the execution of Operation Rubicon. Apparently, it provided the weakened encryption algorithms. The ZfCh gave rise to the Central Office for Information Security (ZSI), which later became the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). The head of the ZfCh until 1972, after the start of the operation, was Erich Hüttenhain, later Otto Leiberich, who also became the founding president of the BSI. Decryption and geopolitical significance On behalf of the German government, the BND received diplomatic and military radio traffic from many states that encrypted with Crypto AG equipment. The BND was able to read these communications across the board thanks to manipulated encryption procedures. According to the leaked documents, at times over 40 percent of the NSA's total machine decryption could be traced back to Operation Rubicon, which was considered an "irreplaceable resource." For the BND, the operation was even more important as the centerpiece of cooperation with the Americans, as it accounted for 90 percent of reports on diplomatic operations, according to CIA figures. At the same time, the weakness of the algorithms of the exported Crypto AG devices continued to be exploited by the BND well after the operation was terminated in 1992, according to media reports. For example, Italian traffic was reportedly still being deciphered around 2001. The German and U.S. governments were much better informed about domestic and geopolitical events in many countries than was known until the operation was uncovered. This subsequently raised questions about the actions or inactions of the actors involved. Coup in Chile In the United States intervention in Chile, the United States relied on decrypted communications from the government of Salvador Allende. Negotiations on the Middle East Conflict In the course of the 1978 Camp David Accords negotiations, the NSA was able to read communications from the Egyptian side and therefore knew their negotiating position. The agreement, negotiated under then U.S. President Jimmy Carter, resulted in the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty in 1979. Falklands War During the 1982 Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom, it was apparently possible to decipher a large part of Argentina's encrypted communications by the NSA and BND, as weakened Crypto AG devices were also used there. The resulting intelligence was made available to the British. US conflict with Libya After the attack on the Berlin discotheque La Belle in April 1986, the BND and NSA intercepted communications between the Libyan embassy in East Berlin and Tripoli. Then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan stated that he had clear evidence that dictator Muammar Gaddafi was behind the operation, and his country could track all Libyan communications. The disclosure of his own capabilities was linked to the need to justify U.S. attacks on the country (Operation El Dorado Canyon). U.S. invasion of Panama In 1989, the United States invaded Panama (Operation Just Cause). Through Operation Rubicon, U.S. intelligence agencies knew that wanted President Manuel Noriega was in the Vatican embassy in Panama City. Detection In 1996, Der Spiegel reported for the first time that Crypto AG had been selling manipulated cipher devices until the late 1980s, and made the connections to the BND and CIA. In its print issue No. 36 (1996), under the title "Who is the Authorized Fourth?" Secret Services Infiltrate the Protection of Encryption Devices, Spiegel devoted an article to the business practices of Crypto AG. The actual exposure of Operation Rubicon happened in February 2020 through the joint research of Swiss Radio and Television, ZDF and Washington Post. They evaluated a 280-page intelligence dossier that proved that the BND and CIA were comprehensively behind Crypto AG. The dossier proves that Crypto AG sold manipulated encryption devices to about 130 countries as part of Operation Rubikon. The communication encrypted with the devices could be read by the services without any problems. According to Austrian intelligence expert Siegfried Beer, such devices were also in use in Austria. Bernd Schmidbauer, Minister of State to the Federal Chancellor under Helmut Kohl, confirmed the Rubikon operation to ZDF in 2020, claiming that it helped make the world a little "safer and more peaceful". Criticism Through Operation Rubicon, which lasted for decades, various German and U.S. governments had extensive detailed knowledge of human rights violations worldwide. Argentina's armed forces used Crypto AG technology during Argentina's military dictatorship from 1976 to 1983. The junta had thousands of regime critics thrown alive into the sea from military planes over the Atlantic; around 30,000 people in total fell victim to the dictatorship. Although the German government under Helmut Schmidt was aware of this through the interception technology of Crypto AG, the German national football team participated in the 1978 World Cup held in Argentina. It must be noted, however, that an obvious use of the information obtained would most likely have resulted in the unmasking of the politically highly sensitive operation, which was extremely important for the intelligence services involved. Research by ZDF shows that the weaknesses of the algorithms in the manipulated devices could also have been exploited by opposing intelligence services. In the 1980s, the GDR's Ministry of State Security and the KGB had succeeded in deciphering the encryption of Turkish diplomatic reports throughout, thereby reading them. Turkey was also one of the states that purchased encryption devices with weakened keys from, among others, Crypto AG. Thus, the weakened crypto products supplied to Allies ultimately jeopardized the security of the Alliance as a whole due to the increased risk of third parties skimming the information. Investigations On January 15, 2020, the Swiss Federal Council decided to entrust former federal judge Niklaus Oberholzer with an investigation. On February 13, 2020, an investigation was also launched by the Parliament's Business Audit Delegation (GPDel) under GPDel President Alfred Heer. The GPDel decided to merge Niklaus Oberholzer's Federal Council investigations with theirs, and Oberholzer continues to work under the auspices of the GPDel. Some parliamentarians called for a Parliamentary Investigation Commission (PUK), which would have more powers. The office of the National Council spoke out against a PUK for the time being, first the report of the GPDel should be waited for. The report was published on November 10, 2020. Not published, however, is the report, which was prepared by Niklaus Oberholzer on behalf of the GPDel. The report reveals, among other things, that the Strategic Intelligence Service (SND) knew from 1993 that foreign intelligence services were behind Crypto AG; however, both the Federal Council and the leadership of the intelligence service denied having knowledge of this fact. The GPDel subsequently raised the question of why the Federal Council was not informed - or did not want to be informed - in a matter that endangered Swiss neutrality in a massive way. The Swiss Federal Council was asked to comment on the GPDel's remarks and recommendations by June 1, 2021. During the GPDel's investigation, it became known that other companies besides Crypto AG were selling manipulated cipher devices. In May 2021, it became known that Jean-Philippe Gaudin would end his post as head of the Swiss intelligence service NDB at the end of August 2021, as he had informed the Federal Council too late about the affair and the relationship of trust had been shattered. The GPDel was also responsible for the investigation. References Intelligence operations Central Intelligence Agency operations Germany–United States relations United States–West Germany relations Federal Intelligence Service

69633259

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo%20Krawczyk

Hugo Krawczyk

Hugo Krawczyk is an Argentine Israeli cryptographer best known for co-inventing the HMAC message authentication algorithm and contributing to the cryptographic architecture of many Internet standards, including IPsec, IKE, and SSL/TLS. Education Krawczyk acquired a Bachelor of Arts with a specialization in Mathematics from the University of Haifa. Later he received his Master of Arts and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Technion - Israel Institute of Technology. Career Hugo Krawczyk works at the Algorand Foundation as a Research Fellow. Prior to that, he worked at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center as an IBM Fellow and Distinguished Research Staff Member, where he was a member of the cryptography research group from 1992 to 1997 and again from 2004 to 2019. He also worked as an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Technion in Israel from 1997 until 2004. Hugo's research interests include both theoretical and applied elements of cryptography, with a focus on network security, privacy, and authentication. TLS 1.3, the next-generation TLS, and HKDF, the emerging standard for key derivation embraced by TLS 1.3, Signal, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and others, are among his most recent projects in this area. Select publications 1988: On the Existence of Pseudorandom Generators 1993: The Shrinking Generator 1993: Secret Sharing Made Short 1994: LFSR-based Hashing and Authentication 1995: Proactive secret sharing or: How to cope with perpetual leakage 1996: SKEME: A versatile secure key exchange mechanism for internet 1996: On the composition of zero-knowledge proof systems 1997: Proactive public key and signature systems 1997: MMH: Software Message Authentication in the Gbit/Second Rates 1998: Chameleon Hashing and Signatures 2001: Analysis of key-exchange protocols and their use for building secure channels 2001: The order of encryption and authentication for protecting communications (Or: how secure is SSL?) 2002: Security Analysis of IKE's Signature-based Key-Exchange Protocol 2002: Security analysis of IKE’s signature-based key-exchange protocol 2003 SIGMA: The ‘SIGn-and-MAc’approach to authenticated Diffie-Hellman and its use in the IKE protocols 2003: SIGMA: The 'SIGn-and-MAc' Approach to Authenticated Diffie-Hellman and Its Use in the IKE-Protocols 2005: HMQV: A High-Performance Secure Diffie-Hellman Protocol 2007: Secure distributed key generation for discrete-log based cryptosystems 2010: Cryptographic Extraction and Key Derivation: The HKDF Scheme 2013: On the Security of the TLS Protocol: A Systematic Analysis 2013: Highly-scalable searchable symmetric encryption with support for boolean queries 2015: The OPTLS Protocol and TLS 1.3 2018: OPAQUE: An Asymmetric PAKE Protocol Secure Against Pre-computation Attacks 2020: Can a Blockchain Keep a Secret? Awards Krawczyk has won the RSA Conference Award for Excellence in the Field of Mathematics in 2015, the Levchin Prize for Contributions to Real-World Cryptography in 2018, and two IBM corporate honors. References Year of birth missing (living people) Living people

69650917

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%BCbsch%C3%BCtzer%20Teiche%20Stasi%20Bunker

Lübschützer Teiche Stasi Bunker

The Lübschützer Teiche Bunker Complex, built 1968–1972, was designed to be an emergency command centre for the District Administration for State Security, Leipzig (part of the Ministry for State Security, also known as the Stasi) in the event of war or a nuclear attack. It was never used for its intended purpose. Location and structure The facility is about 20 kilometres east of Leipzig and about 3 kilometres north of Machern. It is located at the northeast end of the "Lübschützer Teiche e.V." recreational area and was disguised as a holiday complex belonging to "VEB Water Supply and Sewage Treatment Leipzig". The total area of the site is 5.2 hectares. The bunker buildings are approximately 1500 square metres. The entire area was divided into an inner and an outer security zone and surrounded with chain-link fencing. The fences further divided the facility into three outer areas: north, east, and south. The commandant's bungalow was located in the south area, near the southern entrance. The east area had three bungalows, the middle of which was used by the commandant's deputy in his absence. These bungalows also served to disguise the grounds as a company holiday complex. Only specially qualified Stasi employees had access to the inner zone in which the actual bunker was located. The site was secured by a commandant at the rank of major, his deputy, and about six guards, as well as several dogs. Construction and camouflage of the camp The complex was designed for 100-120 full-time employees. The bunker itself was made of reinforced concrete and measured 35 x 41 metres, at a depth of about 5-6 metres. It was covered by about 2.5 metres of earth. Access was by two staircases, one on the east side and one on the west, that could be closed off by solid panels. The "legending hall", a dummy building meant to disguise the entrance of the bunker, had two large wooden doors and was made of lightweight construction so that the bunker entrances would not be buried if the building was destroyed. The bunker contained working and sleeping rooms, sanitary facilities, a kitchen, and an infirmary, and had air filters, communications equipment, and emergency power generators with tanks for about 6000 litres of diesel fuel. The 16 total rooms were arranged in two rows of eight, with each room measuring approximately 2 x 14 metres. For radio communication, a transmitter was hidden in a smaller bunker about 3 kilometres to the west, in Tresenwald near Gerichshain. This transmitter was placed there to prevent enemy reconnaissance from using radio direction finding to locate the main bunker complex. It was camouflaged with two bungalows, which were supposedly a vacation property of the Council of the District of Leipzig, and could be remotely operated from the main bunker. In case the remote transmitter was destroyed, the complex maintained an emergency transmitter in the bunker itself with an antenna on the grounds. There were some redundant systems in the complex, such as the water supply and the radio. This was intended to ensure functionality for about a week in the event of an emergency, so that, for example, the suppression of a popular uprising could be directed from the site. Since the facility was built under strict secrecy, no civilian employees were allowed on the site. The only exception was for the construction of two wells in the inner zone, which were drilled by a civilian company before the bunker was built in 1968, since the Stasi did not have the necessary specialists. All other work was done by the Stasi employees themselves. For this purpose the complex contained a carpentry shop and an electrical workshop, and there was a locksmith's in the main building. These outbuildings, along with a garage complex and a dog kennel, served to camouflage the bunker, which had no outer zone to the west to hide it. In addition, privacy fencing was placed at the west entrance of the "legending hall". The main function of this building was to camouflage the bunker from western satellite reconnaissance. It was also used to store mobilization reserves. Both entrances to the building were secured by a guard dog on a . Discovery and current use The bunker was not discovered until December 1989. Today, the site is part of the in Leipzig and is operated by the Citizens' Committee. Visitors can see the preserved buildings and the interior furnishings, some of which are original and some of which were sourced from other Stasi bunkers. This includes some of the period communications technology, but not the encryption technology, which was dismantled by Soviet officers. In 1995, the Citizens' Committee succeeded in attaining historical monument protection status for the entire complex. There are several accompanying exhibitions on the site. For example, near the south entrance, next to the commandant's house, are 11 information boards commemorating the Peaceful Revolution of 1989. There are about 30 weather-resistant information boards permanently installed on the site that explain the function of individual buildings and facilities. Guided group tours are provided, and the outdoor facilities are available for self-directed visits during opening hours. Gallery References External links Official Website Image gallery at Die Welt Further reading Buildings and structures in Leipzig (district)

69746031

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyber

Kyber

Kyber is a key encapsulation method (KEM) designed to be resistant to cryptanalytic attacks with future powerful quantum computers. It is used to establish a shared secret between two communicating parties without an (IND-CCA2) attacker in the transmission system being able to decrypt it. This asymmetric cryptosystem uses a variant of the presumably NP-hard lattice problem of learning with errors as its basic trapdoor function. It is considered the most promising candidate for a first post-quantum cryptography standard. Kyber is named after the fictional kyber crystals used to power lightsabers in the Star Wars universe (compare [Light-]SABER). Properties The system is based on module learning with errors (M-LWE) from the field of machine learning, in conjunction with cyclotomic rings. Since recently, there is also a tight formal mathematical security reduction of the ring-LWE problem to MLWE. Compared to competing PQ methods, it has typical advantages of lattice-based methods, e.g. in regard to runtime as well as the size of the ciphertexts and the key material. Variants with different security levels have been defined: Kyber512 (NIST security level 1, ≈AES 128), Kyber768 (NIST security level 3, ≈AES 192), and Kyber1024 (NIST security level 5, ≈AES 256). At a complexity of 161 bits, the secret keys are 2400, the public keys 1184, and the ciphertexts 1088 bytes in size. With an accordingly optimized implementation, 4 kilobytes of memory can be sufficient for the cryptographic operations. For a chat encryption scenario using liboqs, replacing the extremely efficient, non-quantum-safe ECDH key exchange using Curve25519 was found to increase runtime by a factor of about 2.3 (1.5–7), an estimated 2.3-fold (1.4–3.1) increase in energy consumption, and have about 70 times (48–92) more data overhead. Internal hashing operations account for the majority of the runtime, which would thus potentially benefit greatly from corresponding hardware acceleration. Development Kyber is derived from a method published in 2005 by Oded Regev, developed by developers from Europe and North America, who are employed by various government universities or research institutions, or by private companies, with funding from the European Commission, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Germany. They also developed the related and complementary signature scheme Dilithium, as another component of their "Cryptographic Suite for Algebraic Lattices" (CRYSTALS). Like other PQC-KEM methods, Kyber makes extensive use of hashing internally. In Kyber's case, variants of Keccak (SHA-3/SHAKE) are used here, to generate pseudorandom numbers, among other things. In 2017 the method was submitted to the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for its public selection process for a first standard for quantum-safe cryptographic primitives (NISTPQC). It is one of the most promising finalists for the standard that is expected in early 2022. As one of four asymmetric encryption algorithms, it competes with at least two other methods. The McEliece method is based on a different principle and could be standardized additionally. In the second phase of the selection process, several parameters of the algorithm were adjusted and the compression of the public keys was dropped. While the computational complexity of the algorithm is outstandingly low by comparison, NIST could choose NTRU as a more conservative option, should security issues or patent claims arise for Kyber. The French National Centre for Scientific Research's claimed applicability of its Gaborit and Aguilar-Melchor patent is disputed. Most recently, NIST paid particular attention to costs in terms of runtime and complexity for implementations that mask runtimes in order to prevent corresponding Side-channel attacks (SCA). Usage The developers have released a reference implementation into the public domain (or under CC0), which is written in C. The program library liboqs of the Open Quantum Safe (OQS) project contains an implementation based on that. OQS also maintains a quantum-safe development branch of OpenSSL, has integrated it into BoringSSL, and its code has also been integrated into WolfSSL. There are a handful of implementations using various other programming languages from third-party developers, including JavaScript and Java. Various (free) optimized hardware implementations exist, including one that is resistant to side-channel attacks. The german Federal Office for Information Security is aiming for implementation in Thunderbird, and in this context also an implementation in the Botan program library and corresponding adjustments to the OpenPGP standard. References External links original method by Asymmetric-key algorithms

69753744

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod%20Jackson%20%28epidemiologist%29

Rod Jackson (epidemiologist)

Rodney Thornton Jackson (born 1954) is a New Zealand medically trained epidemiologist who has had lead roles in publicly-funded research focussing on systems to effectively identify risk factors in the epidemiology of chronic diseases, in particular cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). This involved linking large cohort studies to regional and national electronic health databases and enabling the generation of new risk-prevention equations using web-based tools, such as the PREDICT model, to implement, monitor and improve risk assessment and management guidelines. Research on asthma in which Jackson participated influenced decisions made by the New Zealand Ministry of Health, and he has contributed to public debate on dietary risk factors for heart attacks and strokes. Following an evidence-based approach to identification of disparities in medical outcomes for different groups within the New Zealand population, Jackson took a position on racism in the medical sector. In 2020, he became a frequent commentator in the media on the approach of the New Zealand government to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 1999, Jackson has been professor of epidemiology at the University of Auckland. Education and career At the University of Auckland, Jackson obtained a Bachelor of Science (BSc) in 1974, and a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MB ChB) in 1977. A postgraduate diploma in obstetrics and gynaecology (DipObst) was completed at Auckland in 1980, as was a postgraduate diploma in community health (DipComH) from the University of Otago in 1983. Jackson completed a Master of Medical Sciences (MMedSc) in community health at the University of Auckland in 1984, and a PhD in epidemiology at the same institution in 1989. He also trained in public health medicine, receiving his fellowship in public health medicine in 1990. Between 1990 and 1998, Jackson held roles as a senior lecturer and associate professor at University of Auckland, with a position in 1996 as visiting professor at the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at the University of Oxford. From 1999 to 2003, Jackson was professor and head of the Department of Community Health, in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, at Auckland. Since 2004, he has been professor of epidemiology, and served as head of the Section of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, in the School of Population Health, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, between 2004 and 2009. Epidemiologic studies Integration of data Jackson's main research since about 2000 has aimed to integrate public health and healthcare epidemiology by linking individual and national data scalable from individual patients to patient groups to whole populations, initially by establishing the PREDICT study, and subsequently led the establishment of the VIEW research programmes. In 2011, Jackson co-authored an article in The New Zealand Medical Journal that challenged the manner in which New Zealand district health boards (DHBs) had managed the health needs of patients with long-term conditions. While the article acknowledged that some chronic diseases were preventable by "addressing shared risk factors, mainly tobacco use, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity...these interventions are dependent on several key factors; accurate identification of high-risk patients; systematic offering of interventions to these patients and; long-term self-management and maintenance." The paper suggested the use of information technology to provide a more patient-centred approach that linked data from the initial screening through to medical interventions and rehabilitation. Jackson was involved in research in 2018 that created three data-based populations: a New Zealand population derived from Statistics New Zealand's Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI), a 2013 census population and a 2013 Health Service Utilisation population. The aim of the research was to compare the differences in cardiovascular disease prevalence estimates derived from each of the cohorts. The data showed largest percentage differences between the IDI and the other populations for males and those aged from 15 to 34 years, but the largest differences were for people living in deprived areas, with ethnic distributing varying across the three cohorts. The study noted that the "Health Service Utilisation population generally overestimated cardiovascular disease prevalence, while the Census population generally underestimated it...[and concluded that]...The New Zealand IDI population is the most comprehensive and appropriate national cohort for use in health and social research." In 2021, Jackson co-led a team that was funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand to create an "anonymized register of cardiovascular and related risks to help combat the likes of diabetes, gout, obesity and heart failure" in the five-year VAREANZ (Vascular Risk Equity for All New Zealanders)research programme. A paper on the methodology to be used in this programme co-authored by Jackson noted that while there were some limitations to the data gathering, the strength of the programme was that the "datasets are ideal for examining variation across demographic or clinically-defined groups in the use of hospital services, outpatient clinics and pharmacotherapy or other research questions relating to treatment, outcomes and prognosis for CVD and related conditions." PREDICT Since 2002, Jackson has co-led PREDICT, a large-scale cohort study of CVD risk prediction, which is now the world's largest prospective study of CVD in primary care with over 500,000 participants. Jackson and his team, in partnership with Enigma, a New Zealand company specialising in web solutions in healthcare, developed the web-based PREDICT decision support software for the assessment and management of CVD risk. The study provided clinical decision support for New Zealand primary care practitioners while also creating a research cohort, with every patient risk assessment being stored and linked to future hospitalisations and death using secure encryption methodology. In the 19th paper published about the study, it was stated that the use of the software had led to a "better understanding of the acceptability and impact of computerized decision support in primary care, data reliability and variations in risk factor profiles between ethnicities...[because]...the cohort was derived directly from routine practice with the authorisation to generate a single ethnicity classification across multiple databases...[so]...if a patient self-identifies as Māori in any of the linked databases, they will be classified as Māori. Research published in 2018, used the PREDICT computer algorithm to develop equations relevant to patients in contemporary primary care, and documented the performance of these new equations to assess the risk profiles of a nationally representative cohort of New Zealanders. The effectiveness of the equations compared favorability to data gathered by the American College of Cardiology using the prediction equations currently in use at the time in that country. Jackson participated in a 2020 study that documented the efficiency of a newly developed risk equation (PREDICT-2) in estimating the five-year risk of CVD event recurrence among patients aged 30–79 years with known atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). The study showed that the PREDICT-2 risk equation complemented the PREDICT-1 risk scores for primary prevention of CVD because it was well calibrated to the New Zealand population and could "rationally and transparently target more intensive interventions to those at elevated CVD risk across the population." The value of the PREDICT model was evidenced in a study on cardiovascular risk equations for diabetes patients from New Zealand and Chinese electronic health records (CREDENCE) study in 2021 which investigated cardiovascular risk in two large contemporary cohorts of people with type 2 diabetes from New Zealand and China. The study was designed to derive and evaluate CVD risk prediction models and equations in cohorts from both countries—one developed, one developing—to determine if the models were equally applicable. Both population studies were built on data from electronic health records, using PREDICT-T2D cohort for New Zealand and CHERRY-T2D cohort for China. The paper, co-authored by Jackson, recorded that there were "5926 (7.7% fatal) CVD events in the New Zealand cohort and 3650 (8.8% fatal) in the Chinese cohort but demonstrated that the most common types of CVD events differed significantly between the cohorts. The research results have implications for policy makers, clinicians and the public and will facilitate personalised management of cardiovascular risk in people with type 2 diabetes worldwide." Other risk prediction projects In 2017 Jackson participated in a study to investigate integration of individual level data with data at a national level for a country's total adult population, to develop a synthetic national population model to predict the risk of cardiovascular disease. This study showed that it was possible to develop this model with "demographic and CVD-risk profiles using national census data, routine national hospitalisation and medication data and a large sub-national primary care dataset," and the researchers were confident that this would "inform CVD risk management guideline updates in New Zealand and elsewhere." Jackson was involved in research in 2021 that assessed the value of a machine learning-based risk approach for cardiovascular disease risk prediction across the national population of New Zealand. The study concluded that the deep learning models performed well in terms of calibration and discrimination of the probability estimate, were readily available and "could be applied to large health administrative datasets to derive interpretable CVD risk prediction equations that are more accurate than traditional Cox proportional hazards models." Jackson was involved in research funded by Health Research Council of New Zealand, National Heart Foundation of New Zealand and Healthier Lives National Science Challenge, which focused on predicting cardiovascular risk in middle-aged adults with diabetes. A paper, co-authored by Jackson, suggested that internationally doctors might be unnecessarily administering expensive drug treatments to patients with diabetes due to "over-estimating patients' risks of cardiovascular problems such as heart disease and stroke...[and that] these findings have clear international implications as increased diabetes screening will lead to the identification of many people with asymptomatic diabetes who were at low risk. Jackson commented that "for the first time, general practitioners here are able to use risk prediction equations developed in New Zealand and derived from New Zealand patients,...[and]...these are currently the most accurate equations in the world for predicting risk of heart attacks and strokes in people with diabetes." Polypill project From 2006 to 2012, Jackson was a Co-Investigator on the Polypill project at University of Auckland. This involved bundling a group cardiovascular disease reduction drugs to give the flexibility to modify the daily dose of each drug. A report from the London School of Pharmacy, authored by Professor David Taylor said that this approach, when combined with other changes to lifestyle could be effective, and called for policies based on science "that encourage pharmaceutical companies to create polypills using older generic medicines." VIEW and VAREANZ programmes Since 2011 Jackson and his team have received consecutive 5-year Health Research Council programme grants to undertake a series of studies linking large-scale datasets from primary and secondary (hospital) care settings with national health administrative datasets. The 2011 VIEW (Vascular Informatics using Epidemiology and the Web) programme was followed by 2016 VIEW2020 programme and the VAREANZ programme to begin in 2022. These research programmes recognised that some available treatments could reduce the risk of early vascular disease, but because of possible under-and over-treatment, there were inequities related to ethnicity and deprivation that were difficult to recognise because of few valid risk-predictions algorithms being available. The VIEW programmes aimed to: i. develop new risk prediction algorithms to assist clinicians estimate vascular risk in multiple high-risk populations; ii. determine in whom, where and why, under- and over-treatment and inequities in vascular risk and risk management occur; iii. develop and implement a multi-algorithm risk prediction engine and a ‘big-data’ vascular health information platform to support initiatives to increase appropriate treatment, reduce inequities in vascular disease outcomes and improve overall vascular health. The aims of the VAREANZ programme are to: create a unified updatable national risk register including every New Zealander – the VAREANZ Register, to characterise everyone's cardio-vascular-metabolic risk profile; establish a Māori-led, equity-focussed big-health-data sovereignty governance group to provide oversight of every aspect of the research; establish a big-health-data science expert group to provide oversight of the VAREANZ Register data ecosystem to create it, manage it, curate it, keep it secure, and make it accessible; and predict cardio-vascular-metabolic risks of everyone on the VAREANZ Register, identify cardio-vascular-metabolic risk-equity-gaps, inform stakeholders, and monitor progress towards closing the gaps. Research on asthma medications In 1982 a research team, of which Jackson was a member, examined an abrupt disproportionate increase in reported deaths from asthma in New Zealand after 1976 compared to several other countries. Suggested explanations included the possibility the disease in New Zealand may be more severe, that there might be environmental factors specific to New Zealand, or what they concluded was the most likely explanation, changes in the way asthma was managed in the country. One of these changes was noted as an "undue reliance on bronchodilator drugs to the exclusion of appropriate prophylaxis and delays in giving corticosteroids in the severe acute attack." The research, from this paper and another one, was cited in a study which tested the hypothesis that "unsupervised self administration of fenoterol by inhalation increases the risk of death from asthma...[and concluded]...there are now three New Zealand case-control studies, each using different sources of data, indicating that inhaled fenoterol- increases the risk of death in patients with severe asthma." In 1989, the New Zealand Ministry of Health received a report that assessed the relationship between prescribed fenoterol and deaths from asthma in New Zealand. It noted that although an earlier report had stated a possible causal association could have been produced by a combination of "information bias, confounding and chance", the author had considered further studies and was able to conclude: "the consistency and strength of the evidence for an empiric relationship between fenoterol prescription and asthma deaths leads to the conclusion that fenoterol prescription is likely to increase the risk of death from asthma...[and]...clinical and policy decisions should be based on this assessment. By 1995 a paper co-authored by Jackson, confirmed the earlier findings that inhaled fenoterol was associated with increased asthma-related deaths in New Zealand since 1976, and noted that the New Zealand Department of Health had "issued warnings about the safety of fenoterol and restricted its availability." A publication in 2007 by Neil Pearce, one of the research team of which Jackson was a member, was described by one reviewer in The Lancet as "a compelling book that describes the real-life events behind the identification of fenoterol as the causative agent behind the epidemic." Helen Clark, the New Zealand Prime Minister at the time, said in the foreword to the book that "the work of Neil Pearce and his colleagues seemed to show that this 'epidemic' of deaths had coincided almost exactly with the widespread use of fenoterol in New Zealand, starting in 1976." Debate about dietary risk factors for CVD Jackson commented in 2002 on what were being perceived at the time as 'mixed messages' about alcohol and the risk of heart attacks. In the Newsletter of the Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand, Jackson noted that there was evidence of a link of light-to-moderate drinking to a reduced risk of CVD, but cautioned that "drinking alcohol is always a balance between benefits and harm...[and]...the benefit is only to those people whose risk of heart attack and stroke is high enough to significantly gain from having the risk lowered, and this falls into a certain age range...In general, men have to be over 45 to 50 and women over 55 to 60 to get more health benefits than harm from drinking." Jackson subsequently published a paper in 2005 entitled Alcohol and ischaemic heart disease: probably no free lunch which concluded that "Any coronary protection from light to moderate drinking will be very small and unlikely to outweigh the harms. While moderate to heavy drinking is probably coronary-protective, any benefit will be overwhelmed by the known harms. If so, the public-health message is clear. Do not assume there is a window in which the health benefits of alcohol are greater than the harms— there is probably no free lunch." An article in The New Zealand Herald in 2014 reported a debate between Jackson and Grant Schofield on whether saturated fats were healthy. Jackson's position was that he was "deeply concerned the Schofield camp, with its promotion of butter, cream and coconut oil, is setting the nation on a path to increased coronary artery disease, after more than 30 years of falling heart disease mortality." Schofield claimed that while their interactions were initially heated, they did later discuss some science – without agreeing on anything. Jackson said he told Schofield that he thought it was both "irresponsible and dangerous to encourage the public to eat more saturated fat, given the weight of evidence about saturated fat and coronary heart disease". There was a range of opinions from other contributors to the article. In 2015, when there was public debate about the value of a high-fat low-carbohydrate diet, Jackson gave a public lecture in Dunedin outlining the data that showed "the steady decline in the use of saturated fat sources such as butter (which represents 20–25% of our saturated fat intake in New Zealand) has been followed by a 90% decline in cardiovascular disease events." Jackson had previously challenged claims made by Nina Teicholz in an interview on New Zealand radio, that fat was not the "enemy in diet". He said that Teicholz was ill-informed or disingenuous because the evidence had shown that since the late 1960s people were healthier due to a reduction in cardiovascular disease because of a decrease in the consumption of saturated fats. Following a claim in 2014 by three academics that there was no causal link between the amount of saturated fat consumed and the likelihood of coronary heart disease, Jackson acknowledged the difficulty in accurately assessing and quantifying a person's diet and the challenges in developing cohort studies with high and low saturated fat exposure categories. However, he said that there needed to be a consideration of the significant consistency of evidence from a wide range of sources that saturated fat uptake is strongly related to cardiovascular disease, and there was a concern the advice that 'the public should be left to chew the saturated fat', could lead to a "reversal of the major declines in coronary disease mortality experienced in New Zealand and other high-income countries since the late 1960s." In an article in 2017 which claimed New Zealand Ministry of Health data showed that the number of deaths from heart disease in New Zealand was increasing, Jackson responded that there was confusion over dietary advice, but butter consumption had increased and due to it being high in saturated fats, was a major cause of heart disease – along with coconut fat which he said should never be eaten at all. A rebuttal to the position that Jackson had taken in that article was published on Grant Schofield's website. Disparities of medical outcomes Jackson co-authored the paper for a 2020 study involving 475,241 people that provided evidence Māori and Pacific people had a much higher prevalence of smoking, obesity, heart failure, atrial fibrillation and prior CVD compared with other ethnic groups...[and therefore]...experienced the most significant inequities in exposure to CVD risk factors compared with other ethnic groups...[and]...Strong political commitment and cross-sectoral action to implement effective interventions urgently needed." A New Zealand longitudinal study published in 2021 in which Jackson participated, explored the relationship between occupational exposures and ischaemic heart disease (IHD) for males and females in the general and Māori populations. The paper acknowledged that while previous research had identified many "psychosocial, organizational, and environmental workplace factors" were linked to cardiovascular disease, the ethnic minorities and females were not fully represented in the data. The 2021 study found inconsistent results across genders and the general and Maori populations, [suggesting] "that occupational risk factors for IHD are not equivalent across all populations and future research and interventions may not be generalizable across all populations." A news release by the New Zealand Child Poverty Action Group published entitled Preventing Covid-19 health inequities: An urgent duty of care to children in poverty, cited an article co-authored by Jackson that stressed the goal of universal vaccination was cited as being relevant to slowing the spread to of COVID-19 to disadvantaged children and their families. Public policy position In 2020, Jackson was one of several academics who took a public position on racism in the New Zealand health sector. He co-authored an article in the New Zealand Medical Journal that defined systematic racism in terms of how it affected health for marginalised populations by inequitable access to services, prejudice and internalisation by this population of negative messages about their worth and right to equitable services. The article also highlighted "false beliefs" that were claimed contributed to ongoing racism within the health sector in Aotearoa New Zealand and used examples of these in research in which they had explored "differences in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and outcomes by ethnicity." Following publication of the article, feedback from three reviewers was provided by the New Zealand Medical Journal to the authors, who challenged what they claimed were "racist comments" in the feedback. While it was acknowledged by the authors that they had been given the opportunity to address the comments through the peer review process, they made the case that the editorial process followed by the NZMJ was an example of systemic racism. Reasons they gave for this included an apparent lack of expertise of the reviewers, equal treatment of all comments without any filter on whether they were racist, and that the responses to the racist comments were "sent back to the reviewers who had made those comments (along with our responses to their other comments), which led to further racist comments to which our team were again unnecessarily exposed and to which we again had to respond." Commentary on COVID-19 in New Zealand Elimination strategy In May 2020, Jackson questioned the approach of Sweden and other countries in attempting to achieve herd immunity to the Coronavirus, and stated that the elimination strategy employed at the time by the New Zealand Government was "the only sensible route in the absence of a vaccine or effective treatment." A group of academics, led by Simon Thornley challenged the decision to go into lockdown, but their claim that COVID-19 was only marginally worse than the seasonal flu was rated as "mostly false" by AAP Factcheck, and in the same document, Jackson said that the Ioannidis study used by the group was "based on specific sub-populations – cities or regions – and tests were conducted over a relatively short period of time, which could also give inaccurate results." Jackson had previously said that Thornley was the "only dissenter in the epidemiological community...[and]... every experienced epidemiologist in the country [was] supporting the Government’s elimination approach." Support for vaccination of the population Jackson has been a strong advocate for immunisation against the COVID-19 virus and in September 2021 told Hilary Barry and Jeremy Wells on Seven Sharp, a New Zealand TV programme, that the country needed to aim for at least 95% coverage and he was confident New Zealanders could reach that target. He reiterated this on Newshub, noting that vaccination passports were coming, and employers should be able to refuse entry to those who were not vaccinated. Jackson stated at the time that New Zealand needed a more urgent vaccination plan and that the Government would have the support of the majority of people in the country to implement "mandated vaccination for a wide range of jobs...[and]...a unified, non-partisan and radical approach to achieving a minimum 95% of eligible people vaccinated...[ideally including]...5-11-year-olds if the Pfizer vaccine is approved for this age group." By early November 2021, Jackson was saying [that he] "supported widespread public health restrictions and vaccine mandates, not because they are right or wrong, but because Covid-19 is a matter of life or death." He has described the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in preventing severe disease and death as "a modern miracle." At a webinar arranged by Financial Advice New Zealand on 9 November 2021, Jackson presented a medical perspective on the vaccine mandates that were being introduced by the New Zealand Government. He said COVID-19 is "the worst public health issue since World War II...[and that he was]...a supporter of 'no jab – no job' and virus containment measures saying New Zealand has to pull out all the stops to get Kiwis vaccinated." After debunking COVID-19 and vaccine myths, Jackson suggested to the attendees that "a fully vaccinated office is very good protection against infection and you probably won't have to shut down – the more unvaccinated in your office the more it will spread." As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout got underway in New Zealand, Jackson commented in November 2021 that even if the target of getting 90% of the eligible population vaccinated was achieved, it would still not be high enough because a quarter of the people in the country would remain unprotected by inoculation and there would be a danger of significant outbreaks, seeing hospitals overrun with insufficient beds for other non-COVID related issues. In a later news item, he stressed the need to push for higher vaccination rates. By October 2021, when the New Zealand Government announced that fully vaccinated people could home quarantine when returning to the country, Jackson said this could risk the health system being overwhelmed, but the key was to get everyone vaccinated, and this needed to be mandatory for more sectors. After the New Zealand Government confirmed that vaccine doses should be available for 5 to 11 year olds by January 2022, Jackson said that Māori, Pasifika and lower socioeconomic communities should be prioritised in the vaccination roll-out for children. When asked why Māori and Pasifika populations were less vaccinated, Jackson had earlier suggested these groups could be marginalised in New Zealand and needed something other than the mainstream approaches if they were to be reached with the vaccine. Shift in Government's response After the Delta variant had become established in New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern announced on 4 October 2021 a policy shift from elimination of the virus to a more mitigating suppression approach. Jackson said the arrival of Delta had pleasingly resulted in a rapid increase in the vaccination rate, [and] "elimination was never an endgame: it was only a strategy until you had a good vaccination. Fortunately, now we do." He expressed concerns about the loosening of some restrictions for the city of Auckland at the same time, noting that it may be risky and that the key point was still to get more people vaccinated. Jackson contributed to an article at the time which stated that if COVID-19 became endemic in New Zealand the healthcare system could be overwhelmed, and the move from the elimination strategy would still require keeping the case numbers low, with a continuation of "border protection, mask wearing, distancing, bubbles, contact tracing, testing of people and waste water, and vaccination." On 19 October 2021, Jacinda Ardern made it clear that under the new approach, people who were unvaccinated would have some limitations of their everyday activities. Jackson told Radio New Zealand that the government needed to take the position of 'no jab no job, no fun', [because] "the only game in town is to buy time until we get everyone vaccinated." Jackson told the New Zealand Herald that it was necessary "to take a tough stance on people who don't follow the rules." When the New Zealand Government announced a plan in December 2021 to loosen restrictions into the COVID-19 Protection Framework (also known as the 'Traffic Light' system), Jackson told Māni Dunlop on RNZ that the changes may have been well timed but that there were still "more than a million people in the country unvaccinated" and the concern was that if cases got into isolated communities with lower rates of vaccination, that would create problems. He further urged caution when actual changes were made to the alert levels and the opening of internal New Zealand boundaries in December 2021, noting on RNZ Morning Report that the key was to get everyone vaccinated and avoid needing to put in more controls and restrictions. As New Zealand moved into the 'traffic light' system, Jackson drew attention to misinformation about the COVID vaccine that was causing vaccination hesitation. He told Newshub that the new restrictions will "keep vaccinated people safer because they're not going to have to interact as often with unvaccinated people, which will also give those who can't be vaccinated – such as children – better protection too...[and]''...secondly, it should encourage even more people – a substantial proportion of those people are still vaccine hesitant – to get vaccinated." Arrival of Omicron variant On the 17 December 2021, Jackson explained that some of the implications for New Zealand of the arrival of the Omicron variant included the need to bring boosters of the vaccine forward and possibly a review of the opening of the borders scheduled for January 2022 which could affect overseas travel plans. He said that the goal should be to keep the variant out of the country for as long as possible. Changes made by the New Zealand Government late in December 2021 to reduce the time for getting boosters, allowing for the vaccination of children and extending the date for quarantine-free entry for New Zealanders returning from Australia, were seen by Jackson as significant in managing the possibility of an Omicron outbreak in the country. He told Radio New Zealand that during the pandemic, every decision made by a Government was about balancing the risk to health and the risk to the economy, but New Zealand was in a good position because the population was recently vaccinated, it was summer and schools were on holiday. He later said that the holiday period for New Zealanders still required caution, despite high rates of vaccination in most areas. By the end of December 2021, after the first border-related case of Omicron was detected as having been active in the New Zealand community, Jackson said that it could be an historical case, but was likely to have been caught in managed quarantine, and the Government should be "very seriously considering requiring a rapid antigen test before people board a plane to NZ. I don't think a PCR within 72 hours works." Jackson expressed confidence in New Zealand's response to Omicron in February 2022 due to the high levels of vaccination, but expressed concern for those who were still unvaccinated. He noted that while Omicron was likely to be less severe than Delta, unvaccinated people were very vulnerable in terms of "mortality and hospitalisations." Awards In 2006 Jackson won the International Society of Hypertension Julius Award for contributions to hypertension research. He was awarded the Peter Gluckman Medal for Distinguished Contribution to Research in 2009. In 2014 Jackson received the Life Membership Award, Australasian Epidemiology Association. References External links Cardiovascular Disease Risk Assessment and Management for Primary Care (health.govt.nz) Public lecture by Jackson, Dunedin 2015 Coronary heart disease – Rod Jackson | Goodfellow Unit podcast 2017 Nutrition controversies – Clinician seminar 2015| Health Navigator NZ Informatics using Epidemiology & the Web (VIEW2020) Fire and Emergency New Zealand: COVID-19 vaccination conversation with Professor Rod Jackson 1954 births Living people University of Otago alumni New Zealand scientists University of Auckland faculty New Zealand epidemiologists University of Auckland alumni

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yara%20International%20School

Yara International School

Yara International School (YIS) (; ; ), is a K–12 gender-isolated English-medium multicultural international school in ad-Dirah, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, located next to Qasr Al-Hukm Metro Station in the former premises of the Female Student Study Center of Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University. Founded in 2003, it offers Indian curriculum prescribed by the Central Board of Secondary Education besides being a registered Cambridge International School that provides British curriculum offered by the Cambridge Assessment International Education and Pearson Edexcel. It is a member of the CBSE Gulf Sahodaya and is approved by the Ministry of Education, Government of Saudi Arabia. History Establishment and early days Yara International School was founded on 17 May 2003 as a community-based international school to serve the Indian diaspora with only 79 students in Riyadh's ar-Rabwah neighborhood. In August 2003, Yara held its first ever essay writing and Qur'an recitation competition which was open to all Indian school students on the occasion of India's Independence Day. In 2006, Yara school's principal Aasima Saleem attended the event organized by the Bharatiya International Society for Welfare and Solidarity (BISWAS) in which it honored several prominent Indians for their contributions, like Professor Mohammed Al-Turaiki, a recipient of the Order of King Abdulaziz and Cheman Shaik, inventor of the US patent-winning advanced encryption algorithm for information security. In 2008, Kohinoor Toastmasters Club, an affiliate of the US-based Toastmasters International, conducted a youth leadership program in collaboration with Yara school at the Indian embassy auditorium. In April 2010, the deputy managing editor of Arab News Siraj Wahab mentioned Yara International School in one of his articles as "among the most popular CBSE-affiliated schools" in Saudi Arabia. In May 2012, Arab News in its special International Schools Supplement column, Indian journalist Ghazanfar Ali Khan wrote about Yara International School as the "frontrunner in terms of providing a conductive learning environment" and as among Riyadh's "particularly blessed with a rich menu of choices for parents". Yara International School alongside Jeddah-based Hala International School was categorized as amongst the best performing schools in their respective cities meanwhile principal Aasima Saleem announced the installation of Ebix Smartclass (then Educomp Smartclass) interactive whiteboards in the school from the next academic year onwards. In June 2012, Madhyamam reported that an Malayali-origin fifth grade student from Yara International School was cast in a short Arabic-language film made by a group of young Saudi activists that raised awareness against juvenile delinquency. In November 2012, Yara International School made headlines in the Saudi media when it organized a diabetes awareness campaign in the observance of World Diabetes Day in which 400 male students and staffs took part in a walkathon at ar-Rabwah's Nahda Park. The event was backed by many local companies like Hewlett-Packard, Lions Club of Riyadh, Lulu Hypermarket and Nadec. Inter-school events timeline In June 2009, the Riyadh Chapter of the Muslim Educational Society (MES) organized an event to honor the students of CBSE Class 9 and 12 for their scholastic achievements and awarded gold medals and cash awards in the ceremony, Yara school's principal Aasima Saleem along with IISR principal Manzar Jamal Siddiqui attended the event. In January 2011, Yara school along with eight other Indian schools took part the Inter-school contest hosted by Students India forum to raise awareness against the Endosulfan chemical, whereby urging the Indian government to ban it. In May 2011, Yara, along with five other schools participated in the Carrefour-sponsored five-day Second Open International Table Tennis Tournament (OITTT) held at the New Middle East International School. In May 2012, Yara school won the PVC Cup of under-13 football tournament organized by the Peevees Group of Schools in Riyadh. In June 2012, Yara school attended the 22nd Cluster Meet of CBSE Gulf Sahodaya member schools which took place at the International Indian School Jeddah. It also took part in the kick-off football match in which it faced-off with International Indian School Jubail. In October 2012, Jeddah-based Al-Wurood International School defeated Yara International School at second edition of Peevees Cup Soccer Championship held at the Euro Village Sports Complex Stadium in Khobar. Relocation to ad-Dirah neighborhood (2013) By 2013, the Yara International School shifted its campus from ar-Rabwah neighborhood to the premises of the Female Student Study Center in ad-Dirah neighborhood when the latter along with other satellite campuses of Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University began relocating their students and faculty to the newly built King Abdullah City for Female Students. In July 2013, Yara school's principal Aasima Saleem attended an event organized by Kohinoor Toastmasters Club to celebrate its 16th anniversary and conducted its induction ceremony and elected its new executive committee. In October 2013, Yara school organized an event to observe Gandhi Jayanti where students of grades 6 and 7 performed the Kavi Pradeep's De Dee Hame Azaadi in Mahatma Gandhi's memory and concluded the event by screening Shyam Benegal's 1996 Indian-South African film The Making of the Mahatma. In May 2016, Arab News reported that Yara has been maintaining a streak of 100% success rate in the annual All India Secondary School Examination since 2008. In early January 2017, Suprabhaatham Daily reported that a 30-year old Malayali-origin teacher from Yara International School died while giving birth to her third son in a hospital in Riyadh. In May 2017, Yara school celebrated Health Week by organizing a health awareness program for students from kindergarten till third grade. In June 2017, it held an investiture ceremony of the school council in which Kerala's former education minister P. K. Abdu Rabb attended as the event's chief guest. In May 2018, the then Indian ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ahmed Javed awarded medals and honors to several principals and heads of institutions, including Yara's Aasima Saleem for their contribution in the field of education during the induction and award ceremony of Bharat Scouts and Guides which was held at the International Indian School, Riyadh. In early August 2019, Mathrubhumi reported that on the 13th death anniversary of Karat Muhammad Samadani, the founder of M J Higher Secondary School and former member of Yara International School's management committee, former Lok Sabha Member of parliament M. P. Abdussamad Samadani released a book in the presence of C. Moyinkutty at auditorium of Vadi Husna Public School, Kozhikode in his remembrance and for his contribution towards the Indian community in Saudi Arabia. In late August 2019, Yara announced through its Facebook handle that it'll start offering British curriculum prescribed by Cambridge Assessment International Education and is opening admission to all nationalities from September 2019 onwards. Yara was among the 26 out of 41 schools qualified to take part in CBSE Cluster Meet as well as in the 29th Principals’ Conference titled 'Hubs of Learning' conducted in the sidelines of the former at the International Indian School Jeddah in October 2019. In February 2021, Yara school's Aasima Saleem was among 193 principals who attended Gulf Sahodaya Conference in Riyadh and discussed the challenges faced by the Indian schools located in the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), including COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of India's National Education Policy 2020. In April 2021, Yara school's principal Aasima Saleem honored parents of students who helped their wards with learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. In February 2022, the Indian embassy informed through its official Twitter handle that it organized a specialized yoga workshop titled "Benefits of Suryanamaskar" within the premises of Yara International School. Inter-school events timeline In October 2013, Yara participated in an Inter-School debate competition for both secondary and senior secondary levels held at Al-Yasmin International School, Dr Mohammed Ahmed Badshah, assistant professor at King Saud University attended as the event's chief guest. In November 2013, Yara school defeated Al Alia International Indian School at the third Inter-School Football tournament organized by LuLu Group. In October 2014, Madhyamam reported that Yara secured second position among 16 international Indian schools of Riyadh, after International Indian School Riyadh in the Sixth Keli-Sona Youth Festival. In May 2015, Al Alia International Indian School conducted an investiture ceremony of the Girls' Wing, in which Yara school's principal Aasima Saleem was invited as the chief guest. In October 2015, Yara attended the 25th Cluster Meet on the topic 'Judiciary is biased towards the Influential', hosted by International Indian School Jeddah along with several other CBSE affiliated schools. In November 2015, Yara school squared-off with Al Alia International Indian School and defeated it in the Lulu Cup Keli Inter-School Football Tournament, hosted by LuLu Group at the Nasriya Al-Asima International Stadium in Riyadh but was later defeated in the next month by International Indian Public School Riyadh. In April 2016, Yara school's Ashwin Prasad won second prize in the junior category drawing competition conducted by Al Madina Hypermarket during an event to mark the supermarket's first anniversary. In December 2016, Ashwin Prasad, a student of Yara school gave an influential speech on Sir Syed in an event organized by Aligarh Muslim University Old Boys' Association Riyadh to commemorate the 196th birth anniversary of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan where India's former Information and Broadcasting minister and Indian National Congress leader Manish Tewari attended as the event's chief guest. In October 2017, Yara International School defeated Modern Middle East International School and won several gold and silver medals in long jump, shot put and javelin throw at the 27th Zonal Athletic Meet in Dammam. In November 2017, Yara school's students took part in an essay writing contest titled 'The advantages of Maulana Azad's educational vision in contemporary India' during a program organized jointly by Osmania University Alumni Association Riyadh (OUAAR) and Hindustani Bazme Urdu in observance of India's National Education Day in which Arab News managing editor Siraj Wahab and first secretary at the Embassy of India, Dr. Hifzur Rahman attended as the event's chief guests. In December 2017, Yara took part besides 6 other schools in the BEST CUP Under 14 Football Championship hosted by Al-Khozama International School at the Euro Village Sports Complex Stadium in Khobar. In May 2018, Yara International School and others honored several students with gold medals for their memorization of the Quran at the MES (Muslim Education Society) Excellence Award Ceremony which was inaugurated by First Secretary of the Indian Embassy in Riyadh V Narayanan. In October 2018, Yara participated in the Keli Inter-School Football Tournament organized by Safa Makkah Polyclinic and was defeated by International Indian School Riyadh. In November 2018, Yara International School defeated International Indian Public School at the Keli Inter School Football held at the Nazriya Real Madrid Academy Stadium in Riyadh. In December 2019, Yara was among the eight schools who participated in the BEST Cup’19, the under-14 football tournament hosted by Al-Khozama International School held at the Euro Village Sports Complex Stadium in Khobar. Academics and curriculum Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Yara International School offers K–12 education provided by the Central Board of Secondary Education. The school was upgraded to Class 10 (secondary level) in 2007 and Class 12 (senior secondary level) in 2013. It offers 12 subjects, that include: English (First Language and medium of instruction) Hindi (Second Language, UKG onwards) Arabic, Urdu, Malayalam, Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu (Third Language, Grade 2 onwards) Mathematics General Science Social Science Health and Physical Education Art and Craft (S.U.P.W) Computer Science Saudi History and Culture Islamic Studies or Moral Science General Knowledge Cambridge Assessment International Education (CIE) Yara International School also offers British curriculum prescribed by the Cambridge Assessment International Education. It offers: Early Years Curriculum (KG1-KG3) Cambridge Primary Cambridge Lower Secondary Cambridge Upper Secondary (IGCSE) Cambridge International Levels Campus and student life Prior to September 2019, the school primarily served the Indian community in Riyadh, mostly Malayalis and Deccanis. Since 2013, the school School is located in the former premises of the Female Student Study Center of Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in ad-Dirah neighborhood of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Spanned across 2.44 acres, the campus is divided into two sections for male and female students respectively. The school has 119 classrooms and 13 laboratories for science, mathematics and computer, a library, dance and music rooms, health and wellness facility, play grounds, kindergarten recreation area, assembly area, a self-contained infirmary, montessori room and an auditorium, besides having Smart Class interactive whiteboard system installed in all grades. The school's academic session starts from April and ends in March whereas the vacation period remains between July and August. The school has a sexual harassment committee to oversee issues related to sexual harassment and also provides student counselling. Co-curricular activities At the beginning of the academic year, students are supposed to any one of the indoor or outdoor activities, such as arts and crafts, music, dance, yoga, aerobics, football, athletics, scouts and guides or become a member of any one of the assortment of clubs such as, literary club, science and eco club, math club, heritage club or personality development club. Management and key people The school is sponsored by Khalid Abdullah Mohammed Al Idrees, a Saudi academician and activist and is managed by the members of the Yara Educational Trust or SMC (School Management Committee). As per the information obtained largely from Saudi media, the MC members of the school have formerly included Hameed Naha, Showkathali Shahjahan, A. R. Kutty, Khalid Rahman, Abubacker, Ali Koya and late Karat Muhammad Samadani. Notable alumni Fathima Latheef See also List of schools in Saudi Arabia Education in Saudi Arabia References Private schools in Saudi Arabia Educational institutions established in 2003 Indian international schools in Saudi Arabia International schools in Riyadh 2003 establishments in Saudi Arabia Schools in Riyadh

69832740

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pufferfish2

Pufferfish2

Pufferfish2 is an adaptive, cache-hard password hashing function that attempts to improve upon bcrypt. Pufferfish2 uses a modified version of the Blowfish key setup, and improves some of the drawbacks of bcrypt's original Eksblowfish algorithm. Note: Pufferfish, like bcrypt, is not a key derivation function - it is a password hashing function. The difference is that bcrypt and pufferfish have no capability to be asked to generate an n-bit (e.g. 256-bit) key (suitable for example for encryption). It is meant for password hashing. All key-derivation functions can be used to hash passwords, but not all password hashing functions can be used to generate keys. PBKDF2, scrypt, and Argon2 are all key derivation functions that are repurposed as password hashing functions. Pufferfish2 is based on the Password Hashing Competition candidate Pufferfish, which was selected as a finalist, but was not selected as the winner. Pufferfish2 includes several bug fixes and general improvements over Pufferfish, as well as incorporates feedback received on Pufferfish during the PHC review and selection process. Pufferfish is immune to garbage collector attacks. Features Supports passwords of any length (vs. bcrypt's max of 72 characters), any encoding, any character (0x00 - 0xff). Dynamic s-boxes scale to fill L2 or L3 cache (and well beyond), forcing GPU attacker to use global memory. Inherits bcrypt's cache hardness via small-but-frequent pseudo-random reads, but performs many more reads than bcrypt for the same target runtimes. Pufferfish2 also adds several larger, less-frequent memory read-hash-write operations. Supports up to 263 iterations. Upgrades Blowfish to 64-bit integers, resulting in improved performance vs. bcrypt for 64-bit defenders, and decreased performance for 32-bit attackers (e.g., GPUs.) Further reading Password Hashing Competition: Pufferfish submission paper Examination of Pufferfish's resistance to (weak) garbage collector attacks References

69900061

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seny%20Kamara

Seny Kamara

Seny Kamara is a Senegalese-French-American computer scientist best known for his work on cryptography. He has delivered multiple congressional testimonies about the potential harms and opportunities with technology. He leads or co-leads numerous centers and activities focused on cryptography and social good. His work has been covered extensively in high-profile media, including Wired and Forbes. Education Kamara received his Bachelors in Computer Science from Purdue University in 2001. He received his Master's degree and PhD in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University in 2008. His dissertation, Computing Securely with Untrusted Resources, explored cryptographic problems in the setting of cloud computing including searchable symmetric encryption and proofs of storage. Career He is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Brown University. He has worked as a Chief Scientist at Aroki Systems, as a Principal Scientist at MongoDB, and as a researcher at Microsoft Research. At Brown University, he co-directs the Encrypted Systems Lab and is affiliated with the CAPS group, the Data Science Initiative, the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies and the Policy Lab. He teaches a popular Algorithms for the People course that surveys, critiques, and aspires to address the ways in which computer science & technology affect marginalized communities. Research Kamara is one of the principal contributors to the field of encrypted search and to searchable symmetric encryption (SSE). With Reza Curtmola, Juan Garay and Rafail Ostrovsky, he proposed the first SSE constructions to achieve optimal search time. Along with Melissa Chase, he later introduced structured encryption which underlies most practical SSE and encrypted database schemes. Public work Kamara has given congressional testimony to the U.S. House Committee on Space, Science, and Technology in 2021 where he argued for considering the harms technology can cause and advocated for computer science and technology communities to work hard to mitigate those harms. Also in 2021, he collaborated with Senator Ron Wyden to advocate for an encrypted gun registry. In 2019, he delivered congressional testimony to the Financial Services Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives about how data uses in the financial industry have the potential to erode consumer privacy and increase discrimination. He joined a National Academy of Sciences committee focused on "Law Enforcement and Intelligence Access to Plaintext Information in an Era of Widespread Strong Encryption: Options and Tradeoffs" which has produced a report on encryption and cybersecurity. Publications His most cited publications are: Reza Curtmola, Juan Garay, Seny Kamara, Rafail Ostrovsky, Searchable symmetric encryption: improved definitions and efficient constructions (2011) Journal of Computer Security 19:895-934 (Cited 2830 times, according to Google Scholar ) Seny Kamara, Kristin Lauter, Cryptographic cloud storage. (2010) International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security, 136-149 (Cited 1880 times, according to Google Scholar.) Seny Kamara, Charalampos Papamanthou, Tom Roeder, Dynamic searchable symmetric encryption (2012) Proceedings of the 2012 ACM conference on Computer and communications (Cited 1063 times, according to Google Scholar.) References African-American computer scientists African-American academics French computer scientists American computer scientists French cryptographers American cryptographers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people

69961974

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square%20%28payment%20system%29

Square (payment system)

Square is a payments system developed by Block, Inc. Square is a payments platform aimed at small and medium businesses that allows them to accept credit card payments and use tablet computers as payment registers for a point-of-sale system. History The original inspiration for Square occurred to Jack Dorsey in 2009 when Jim McKelvey (a friend of Dorsey) was unable to complete a $2,000 sale of his glass faucets and fittings because he could not accept credit cards. At the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in May 2011, Square announced the release of two new apps, Square Card Case (later rebranded as Square Wallet) and Square Register. Square Wallet, before it was removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in 2014, allowed customers to set up a tab and pay for their order by providing their name (or a barcode) using a stored credit, debit, or gift card. In August 2012, Starbucks announced it would use Square to process transactions with customers who pay via debit or credit card. In February 2014, Whole Foods Market announced it would use Square Register in select stores' sandwich counters, pizzerias and coffee, juice, wine and beer bars. In June 2013, the firm launched Square Market, which allows sellers to create a free online storefront with online payment processing functionality. In March 2014, the firm announced it will start allowing sellers to accept bitcoin on their own storefronts through Square Market. The seller will take no risk on bitcoin value fluctuations. Devices Square Reader The Square Reader was the firm's first product. It accepts credit card payments by connecting to a mobile device's audio jack. The original version consisted of a simple read head directly wired to a 3.5 mm audio jack, through which unencrypted, analog card information was fed to smartphones for amplification and digitization. In April 2012, rival payment company Verifone claimed that the Square system at the time was insecure and that a reasonably skilled programmer could write a replacement app which could use the Square device to skim a credit card and return its details, because of the lack of encryption. VeriFone posted a demonstration video and sample skimming app to its web site. Dorsey called VeriFone's claims "neither fair nor accurate", noting that all card data can also be compromised by visually examining the card and that even if there were a compromise, card issuers offered fraud protection. Square introduced strong encryption on its devices, and neither card numbers, nor magnetic stripe data, nor security codes are stored on Square client devices. The current technology is Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI) compliant and Verisign certified. As of March 2013, Square provided its magnetic stripe card readers to users for free. Square charges $99 for Square Stand and $29 for its chip-based Square Reader. The Square app is also freely downloadable from the App Store and the Google Play Store. In May 2013, the firm announced that its mobile payments service was available in Japan after agreeing to a partnership with Sumitomo Mitsui Card Corporation. The fee for transactions would be 3.25% in Japan. It launched in the UK in 2017. In July 2014, ahead of the October 2015 EMV liability shift, the firm announced a card reader that would accept chip cards and contactless cards to supplement the standard Reader's support of traditional magnetic stripe card transactions. In June 2015, Apple announced Square would release a new Reader capable of also accepting Apple Pay and other contactless payments. In August 2018, Square released a version of its magstripe reader with a Lightning connector, allowing it to be used on iPhones without a headphone jack. Square charges a fee of 2.6% plus $0.10 on every electronically scanned credit card transaction or 3.50% plus $0.15 per manually-entered transaction. There are no monthly fees or set-up costs. The firm claims that its costs are, on average, lower than the costs charged by conventional credit card processors. Swiped payments are deposited directly into a user's bank account within 1-2 business days. In some instances, Square may withhold payments to its users pending issues related to chargebacks. The firm also generates revenue from selling other services to businesses, including subscription-based products such as Customer Engagement, Square Payroll, and Square Register. For example, with Square Payroll, Square charges sellers a monthly fee of $20 plus $5 for each employee paid. Other devices In June 2013, the firm unveiled Square Stand, which turns the Apple iPad into a more complete point-of-sale system. In 2015, Square launched a bluetooth-connected reader that works for Android and iOS devices to accept chip and contactless payments through their platform. In October 2017, a standalone point-of-sale system, Square Register, was announced for small to medium-sized businesses. It consists of a merchant tablet and a customer tablet, with a built-in swipe, chip, and tap reader. In October 2018, the company introduced a self-contained Terminal product that features a display, prints receipts, and accepts chip, swipe, and contactless payments. Services In December 2012, Square began allowing merchants to issue virtual gift cards; a QR code is scanned from the customer's smartphone to use the funds. Physical gift cards were added in the service in 2014. In 2013, Square launched Square Market, which enable business to accept online payments. In 2014, Square launched Square Capital, which offers business financing to merchants using Square. In 2014, an online booking tool was added to the firm's offerings, allowing small businesses to accept appointments on their website. The service only accepts scheduled appointments based on a service provider's availability, and does not accept restaurant reservations. In 2015, the firm launched Square Payroll, a tool for small business owners to process payroll for their employees. The product, available in all 50 states + DC, automatically handles a business's withholdings, payroll payments, and tax filings. In 2018, Square began allowing merchants to develop custom interfaces for the platform, via an application programming interface. After receiving approval in 2020 from the FDIC and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions, the company announced plans to launch small business-focused Square Financial Services in 2021, based in Salt Lake City. Reception Business Insider praised the product for its "ease of use, simplicity and elegance". Business Insider favorably compared Jack Dorsey with Steve Jobs for what they called his "entrepreneurial vision and charisma". The Next Web praised Square's website, squareup.com, for its design and aesthetic appeal. The product was also showcased at Apple's iPad 2 event. GigaOM called the product a disruptive innovation. Banning firearms In May 2013, Square announced it would no longer allow firearms-related transactions to be performed using its devices or software. The company amended its terms of service for retailers to ban sales of "firearms, firearm parts or hardware, and ammunition; or ... weapons and other devices designed to cause physical injury". The company denied that this move was related to the increased debate over gun control. Controversy In June 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported that Square inadvertently sent transaction receipts to the wrong email address, leading to adverse consequences such as outing one woman's impending divorce. A Canadian food truck which sold Cuban coffee faced a loss of C$14,000 because transactions were processed through a Canadian subsidiary of Chase Manhattan Bank, contracted by Square to handle its Canadian accounts. As the parent company is governed by US laws, the bank would have been subject with charges of trafficking in prohibited Cuban goods if it had processed the fund transactions. Square marks certain merchants as high risk, a designation that can can come suddenly and without warning. Merchants classified as risky can have 20-30% of the funds they acquire withheld to handle chargebacks and disputes, preventing merchants from withdrawing all their earned revenue. Square has received criticism from affected merchants due to the opaque nature of the process, its suddenness, and difficulties in appealing the designation. See also PayPal References External links Block, Inc. Android (operating system) software IOS software Online payments Payment service providers

70035770

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAESAR%20Competition

CAESAR Competition

The Competition for Authenticated Encryption: Security, Applicability, and Robustness (CAESAR) is a competition organized by a group of international cryptologic researcher to encourage the design of authenticated encryption schemes. The competition was announced at the Early Symmetric Crypto workshop in January 2013 and the final portfolio in February 2019. Use Cases The final CAESAR portfolio is organized into three use cases: 1: Lightweight applications (resource constrained environments) 2: High-performance applications 3: Defense in depth Final Portfolio The final portfolio announced by the CAESAR committee is: CAESAR committee The committee in charge of the CAESAR Competition consisted of: Steve Babbage (Vodafone Group, UK) Daniel J. Bernstein (University of Illinois at Chicago, USA, and Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Netherlands); secretary, non-voting Alex Biryukov (University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg) Anne Canteaut (Inria Paris-Rocquencourt, France) Carlos Cid (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK) Joan Daemen (STMicroelectronics, Belgium) Orr Dunkelman (University of Haifa, Israel) Henri Gilbert (ANSSI, France) Tetsu Iwata (Nagoya University, Japan) Stefan Lucks (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany) Willi Meier (FHNW, Switzerland) Bart Preneel (COSIC, KU Leuven, Belgium) Vincent Rijmen (KU Leuven, Belgium) Matt Robshaw (Impinj, USA) Phillip Rogaway (University of California at Davis, USA) Greg Rose (kitchen4140, USA) Serge Vaudenay (EPFL, Switzerland) Hongjun Wu (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) References External links Homepage for the project Symmetric-key cryptography Cryptography contests Research projects

70087260

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali%20Dehghantanha

Ali Dehghantanha

Ali Dehghantanha is an academic-entrepreneur in cybersecurity and cyber threat intelligence. He is an Associate Professor of Cybersecurity and a Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity and Threat Intelligence. Dehghantanha is a pioneer in applying machine learning techniques toward cyber threat hunting, cyber threat intelligence, and enterprise risk management. His research is highly cited in both academic and industrial settings. He is the Founder and Director of Cyber Science Lab. Education After completing his Diploma in Mathematics at National Organization for Development of Exceptional Talents (NODET), Dehghantanha attended Islamic Azad University, Mashhad Branch, from which he graduated with a bachelor's degree in Software Engineering in 2005. He earned his Master's and Doctoral degrees in Security in Computing from University Putra Malaysia in 2008 and 2011, respectively. Career Dehghantanha started his academic career as Sr. Lecturer of Computer Science and Information Technology at the University Putra Malaysia in 2011, and later on joined the University of Salford as Marie Curie International Incoming Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in 2015. From 2017 to 2018, he held appointment as Sr. Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Sheffield. Following this appointment, he joined the University of Guelph (UoG), Ontario, Canada, as an Associate Professor and Director of Master of Cybersecurity and Threat Intelligence program. He became a Tier 2 NSERC Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity and Threat Intelligence at the University of Guelph (UoG) in 2020. He also holds a concurrent appointment as Adjunct Associate Professor in Schulich School of Engineering's Department of Electrical & Software Engineering at the University of Calgary since 2020. He has developed two Master's programs in cybersecurity, one in the University of Guelph – Canada, and another in the University of Salford. Research Dehghantanha is among highly cited researchers in cybersecurity. He is well-recognized for his research in cyber threat intelligence, and in several fields of cyber security including malware analysis, Internet of Things (IoT) security, and digital forensics. Application of AI in Cyber Threat Hunting and Attribution Dehghantanha was among the first to introduce some major security and forensics challenges within the Internet of Things (IoT) domain. He also reviewed previous studies published in this special issue targeting identified challenges. In 2016, he proposed a two-layer dimension reduction and two-tier classification model for anomaly-based intrusion detection in IoT backbone networks. He has influenced the IoT/ICS network defense field by creating an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) for IoT networks, a secret sharing method of encryption key exchange in vehicular IoT networks, and a method for secret key sharing and distribution between IoT devices. He conducted experiments using NSL-KDD dataset, and proved that his proposed model outperforms previous models designed to detect U2R and R2L attacks. His most notable contributions were made to building AI-based methods for cyber-attack identification and analysis in IoT. Moreover, he developed a Deep Recurrent Neural Network structure for in-depth analysis of IoT malware. Dehghantanha introduced ensemble-based multi-filter feature selection method for DDoS detection in cloud computing, and also discussed its applications in terms of detection rate and classification accuracy when compared to other classification techniques. While presenting a systematic literature review of blockchain cyber security, he conducted a systematic analysis of the most frequently adopted blockchain security applications. The systematic review also highlights the future directions of research, education and practices in the blockchain and cyber security space, such as security of blockchain in IoT, security of blockchain for AI data, and sidechain security. Furthermore, he focused his study on machine learning aided Android malware classification, and also presented two machine learning aided approaches for static analysis of Android malware. Frameworks for Cybersecurity Technology Adoption and Organizational Risk Assessment In 2019, Dehghantanha built a framework that models the impacts of adopting Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) on the performance of SMEs in Canada. He has also created several frameworks for security analysis of cloud platforms, including CloudMe, OneDrive, Box, GoogleDrive, DropBox, MEGA, and SugarSync. He also works to create frameworks for breach coaching and exposure management. In 2016, he published a book entitled Contemporary Digital Forensic Investigations of Cloud and Mobile Applications, and explored the implications of cloud (storage) services and mobile applications on digital forensic investigations. Awards and honors 2016 - Senior Member, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 2016 - Fellowship, U.K. Higher Education Academy 2018 - Marie-Curie International Incoming Fellowship 2020 - Research Excellence Award, University of Guelph College of Engineering and Physical Sciences 2020 - Tier II Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity and Threat Intelligence 2021 - Outstanding Leadership Award, IEEE Bibliography Books Contemporary Digital Forensic Investigations of Cloud and Mobile Applications 1st Ed. (2016) ISBN 9780128053034 Cyber Threat Intelligence (2018) ISBN 9783319739502 Handbook of Big Data and IoT Security (2019) ISBN 9783030105433 Blockchain Cybersecurity, Trust and Privacy (2020) ISBN 9783030381813 Handbook of Big Data Privacy (2020) ISBN 9783030385576 Handbook of Big Data Analytics and Forensics (2021) ISBN 9783030747527 Selected Articles Pajouh, H. H., Javidan, R., Khayami, R., Dehghantanha, A., & Choo, K. K. R. (2016). A two-layer dimension reduction and two-tier classification model for anomaly-based intrusion detection in IoT backbone networks. IEEE Transactions on Emerging Topics in Computing, 7(2), 314–323. Osanaiye, O., Cai, H., Choo, K. K. R., Dehghantanha, A., Xu, Z., & Dlodlo, M. (2016). Ensemble-based multi-filter feature selection method for DDoS detection in cloud computing. EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking, 2016(1), 1–10. Milosevic, N., Dehghantanha, A., & Choo, K. K. R. (2017). Machine learning aided Android malware classification. Computers & Electrical Engineering, 61, 266–274. Conti, M., Dehghantanha, A., Franke, K., & Watson, S. (2018). Internet of Things security and forensics: Challenges and opportunities. Future Generation Computer Systems, 78, 544–546. Taylor, P. J., Dargahi, T., Dehghantanha, A., Parizi, R. M., & Choo, K. K. R. (2020). A systematic literature review of blockchain cyber security. Digital Communications and Networks, 6(2), 147–156. References Living people Iranian Canadian University of Guelph faculty 1982 births

70149799

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022%20Russian%20invasion%20of%20Ukraine

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a large-scale military invasion of Ukraine, one of its neighbours to the southwest, marking an escalation to a conflict that began in 2014. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity in 2014, Russia had annexed Crimea and Russian-backed separatist forces had seized part of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine, leading to an eight-year war in the region. Some reports called the invasion the largest conventional warfare attack in Europe since World War II. Starting early in 2021, Russia built up its military around Ukraine's borders with Russia and Belarus. The US and others accused Russia of planning an invasion, but Russian officials repeatedly issued denials. During the crisis, Russian president Vladimir Putin condemned the post-1997 enlargement of NATO as a threat to his country's security, a claim which NATO rejects, and demanded Ukraine be barred from ever joining the NATO military alliance. Putin and Kremlin officials expressed Russian irredentist views, and questioned Ukraine's right to sovereignty. Before the invasion, in an attempt to provide a casus belli, they accused Ukraine of genocide against Russian speakers in Ukraine, accusations that have been widely described as baseless. On 21 February 2022, Russia officially recognised the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics, two self-proclaimed states controlled by pro-Russian forces in the Donbas. The following day, Russia's Federation Council unanimously authorised Putin to use military force outside Russia's borders, and Russia openly sent troops into the breakaway territories. Around 05:00 EET (UTC+2) on 24 February, Putin announced a "special military operation" in eastern Ukraine; minutes later, missiles began to hit locations across Ukraine, including the capital, Kyiv. The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine said that its border posts with Russia and Belarus were attacked. Two hours later, Russian ground forces entered the country. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded by enacting martial law, severing diplomatic ties with Russia, and ordering general mobilisation. The invasion received widespread international condemnation, including new sanctions imposed on Russia, triggering a financial crisis. Global protests took place against the invasion, while protests in Russia were met with mass arrests. Both prior to and during the invasion, various states have been providing Ukraine with foreign aid, including arms and other materiel support. Background Post-Soviet context and Orange Revolution After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine and Russia maintained close ties. In 1994, Ukraine agreed to abandon its nuclear arsenal by signing the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, on the condition that Russia, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (US) would provide assurances against threats or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine. Five years later, Russia was one of the signatories of the Charter for European Security, which "reaffirmed the inherent right of each and every participating State to be free to choose or change its security arrangements, including treaties of alliance, as they evolve". In December, Viktor Yanukovych, then Prime Minister of Ukraine, was declared the winner of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, despite allegations of vote-rigging by election observers. The results caused a public outcry in support of the opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, and widespread peaceful protests challenged the outcome in what became known as the Orange Revolution. During the tumultuous months of the revolution, Yushchenko suddenly became gravely ill, and was soon found by multiple independent physician groups to have been poisoned by TCDD dioxin. Yushchenko strongly suspected Russian involvement in his poisoning. After the Supreme Court of Ukraine annulled the initial election result, a re-run of the second round was held, bringing Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko to power and leaving Yanukovych in opposition. In 2009, Yanukovych announced his intent to again run for president in the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election, which he won. Euromaidan, Revolution of Dignity, and war in Donbas The Euromaidan protests began in 2013 over the Ukrainian government's decision to suspend the signing of the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement, instead choosing closer ties to Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union. Following weeks of protests, Yanukovych and the leaders of the Ukrainian parliamentary opposition signed a settlement agreement on 21 February 2014 that called for an early election. The following day, Yanukovych fled from Kyiv ahead of an impeachment vote that stripped him of his powers as president. Leaders of Russian-speaking Eastern Ukraine declared continuing loyalty to Yanukovych, leading to pro-Russian unrest. The unrest was followed by the annexation of Crimea by Russia in March 2014 and the war in Donbas, which started in April 2014 with the creation of the Russia-backed quasi-states of the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics. Russian troops were involved in the conflict, although Russia formally denied this. The Minsk agreements were signed in September 2014 and February 2015 in a bid to stop the fighting, although ceasefires repeatedly failed. In July 2021, Putin published an essay titled On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians, in which he re-affirmed his view that Russians and Ukrainians were "one people". American historian Timothy D. Snyder described Putin's ideas as imperialism. British journalist Edward Lucas described it as historical revisionism. Other observers have described the Russian leadership as having a distorted view of modern Ukraine and its history. Ukraine and other European countries neighbouring Russia accused Putin of attempting Russian irredentism and of pursuing aggressive militaristic policies. Prelude Russian military build-ups From March to April 2021, Russia commenced a major military build-up near the Russo-Ukrainian border. The second phase of military build-ups took place from October 2021 to February 2022. Russian equipment marked with a white "Z" symbol, which is not a Cyrillic letter, were spotted on the sides of the equipment during the build-up. Tanks, fighting vehicles, and other equipment bearing the symbol were seen as late as 22 February 2022. Observers believed that the marking was a deconfliction measure meant to prevent friendly fire incidents. Russian officials' denials of plans to invade Despite the Russian military build-ups, Russian officials over months repeatedly denied that Russia had plans to invade Ukraine. On 12 November 2021, Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Putin, told reporters that "Russia doesn't threaten anyone. The movement of troops on our territory shouldn't be a cause for anyone's concern". On 28 November 2021, Peskov stated that "Russia has never hatched, is not hatching and will never hatch any plans to attack anyone. ... Russia is a peaceful country, which is interested in good relations with its neighbors." On 12 December 2021, Peskov said that tensions regarding Ukraine were "being created to further demonise Russia and cast it as a potential aggressor". On 19 January 2022, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Russia does "not want and will not take any action of aggressive character. We will not attack, strike, invade, quote unquote, whatever Ukraine." On 12 February 2022, Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov described discussion about the "so-called planned Russian invasion" as "hysteria". On 20 February 2022, Russia's ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said that Russian forces "don't threaten anyone. ... There is no invasion. There no such plans." The US sought to counter Russian denials by releasing intelligence relating to Russian invasion plans including satellite photographs of buildup and movement of Russian troops and equipment near the Ukrainian border. The US also claimed the existence of a list of key Ukrainians to be killed or detained upon invasion. Russian accusations and demands In the leadup to the invasion, Putin and Kremlin officials engaged in a protracted series of accusations against Ukraine as well as demands against Ukraine and NATO in an attempt to generate justification for war. On 9 December 2021, Putin spoke of discrimination against Russian speakers outside Russia, saying: "I have to say that Russophobia is a first step towards genocide." On 15 February 2022, Putin told the press: "What is going on in Donbas is exactly genocide." The Russian government also condemned the language policy in Ukraine. On 18 February, Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to the US, accused the US of condoning the forced cultural assimilation of Russians in Ukraine. In an address on 21 February, Putin said that Ukrainian society "was faced with the rise of far-right nationalism, which rapidly developed into aggressive Russophobia and neo-Nazism." Putin claimed that "Ukraine never had a tradition of genuine statehood" and was wrongly created by Soviet Russia. Putin's claims were generally ineffective and largely dismissed by the international community. In particular, Russian claims of genocide have been widely rejected as baseless. The European Commission has also rejected the allegations as "Russian disinformation". The US embassy in Ukraine called the Russian genocide claim a "reprehensible falsehood". Ned Price, a spokesperson for the US State Department, said that Moscow was making such claims as an excuse for invading Ukraine. According to press reports, Putin was using a "false 'Nazi' narrative", taking advantage of collaboration in German-occupied Ukraine during World War II, to justify Russia's attack on Ukraine; while there have been problems and the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion is a unit of the National Guard of Ukraine, analysts commented that Putin has largely overblown the issue, and said there is no widespread support for far-right ideology in the government, military, or electorate, and no far-right candidate won a single seat in the Verkhovna Rada, the national legislature, during the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election. Addressing the Russian claims specifically, Ukrainian president Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, stated that his grandfather served in the Soviet Army fighting against the Nazis; three of his family members died in the Holocaust. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum condemned Putin's abuse of Holocaust history as a justification for war. Some commentators described Putin's claims as reflecting his isolation and reliance on an inner circle who were unable to give him frank advice. During the second build-up, Russia issued demands to the US and NATO which included a legally binding promise that Ukraine would not join NATO and a reduction in NATO troops and military hardware stationed in Eastern Europe. In addition, Russia threatened an unspecified military response if NATO continued to follow an "aggressive line". These demands were largely interpreted as being non-viable. New NATO members had joined as their populations broadly preferred to move towards the safety and economic opportunities offered by NATO and the European Union (EU), and away from Russia. The demand for a formal treaty preventing Ukraine from joining NATO was also seen as unviable, although NATO showed no desire to accede to Ukraine's requests to join. Alleged clashes Fighting in Donbas escalated significantly on 17 February 2022. While the daily number of attacks over the first six weeks of 2022 ranged from two to five, the Ukrainian military reported 60 attacks on 17 February. Russian state media also reported over 20 artillery attacks on separatist positions the same day. The Ukrainian government accused Russian separatists of shelling a kindergarten at Stanytsia Luhanska using artillery, injuring three civilians. The Luhansk People's Republic said that its forces had been attacked by the Ukrainian government with mortars, grenade launchers, and machine gun fire. On 18 February, the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic ordered mandatory evacuations of civilians from their respective capital cities, although observers noted that full evacuations would take months to accomplish. Ukrainian media reported a sharp increase in artillery shelling by the Russian-led militants in Donbas as attempts to provoke the Ukrainian army. On 21 February, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) announced that Ukrainian shelling had destroyed an FSB border facility 150 metres from the Russia–Ukraine border in Rostov Oblast. The Luhansk thermal power station in the Luhansk People's Republic was also shelled by unknown forces. Ukrainian news stated that it was forced to shut down as a result. On 21 February, the press service of the Southern Military District announced that Russian forces had in the morning that day killed a group of five saboteurs near the village of , Rostov Oblast, that had penetrated the border from Ukraine in two infantry fighting vehicles, the vehicles having been destroyed. Ukraine denied being involved in both incidents and called them a false flag. Additionally, two Ukrainian soldiers and a civilian were reported killed by shelling in the village of Zaitseve, north of Donetsk. Several analysts, including the investigative website Bellingcat, published evidence that many of the claimed attacks, explosions, and evacuations in Donbas were staged by Russia. Escalation (21–23 February) On 21 February, following the recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics, Putin directed the deployment of Russian troops (including mechanised forces) into Donbas in what Russia referred to as a "peacekeeping mission". Russia's military said it killed five Ukrainian "saboteurs" who crossed the border into Russia, a claim strongly denied by Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba. Later that day, several independent media outlets confirmed that Russian forces were entering Donbas. The 21 February intervention in Donbas was widely condemned by the UN Security Council and did not receive any support. Kenya's ambassador Martin Kimani compared Putin's move to colonialism and said: "We must complete our recovery from the embers of dead empires in a way that does not plunge us back into new forms of domination and oppression." On 22 February, US president Joe Biden stated that "the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine" had occurred. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said that "further invasion" had taken place. Ukrainian foreign minister Kuleba stated: "There's no such thing as a minor, middle or major invasion. Invasion is an invasion." Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, stated that "Russian troops [had arrived] on Ukrainian soil" in what was "[not] a fully-fledged invasion". On the same day, the Federation Council unanimously authorised Putin to use military force outside Russia. In turn, Zelenskyy ordered a conscription of Ukraine's reservists, while not committing to general mobilisation at that time. On 23 February, the Verkhovna Rada proclaimed a 30-day nationwide state of emergency, excluding the occupied territories in Donbas, which took effect at midnight. The parliament also ordered the mobilisation of all reservists of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. On the same day, Russia began to evacuate its embassy in Kyiv and also lowered the Russian flag from the top of the building. The websites of the Ukrainian parliament and government, along with banking websites, were hit by DDoS attacks. By night on 23 February, Zelenskyy made a televised speech in which he addressed the citizens of Russia in Russian and pleaded with them to prevent war. In the speech, Zelenskyy refuted claims of the Russian government about the presence of neo-Nazis in the Ukrainian government and stated that he had no intention of attacking the Donbas region. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the leaders of the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics sent a letter to Putin appealing for military support from Russia "in repelling the aggression of the Ukrainian armed forces", with the letter claiming that Ukrainian government shelling had caused civilian deaths. In response to the appeal, Ukraine requested an urgent UN Security Council meeting. Another meeting was convened on 23–24 February. Russia, which held the presidency of the UN Security Council for February 2022 and has veto power as one of five permanent members, launched its invasion of Ukraine during the emergency meeting called to defuse the crisis. UN Secretary-General António Guterres pleaded with Putin: "Give peace a chance." Invasion 24 February Shortly before 06:00 Moscow Time (UTC+3) on 24 February, Putin announced that he had made the decision to launch a "special military operation" in eastern Ukraine. In his address, Putin claimed there were no plans to occupy Ukrainian territory and that he supported the right of the peoples of Ukraine to self-determination. Putin also stated that Russia sought the "demilitarisation and denazification" of Ukraine (see ). The Russian Ministry of Defence asked air traffic control units of Ukraine to stop flights, and the airspace over Ukraine was restricted to non-civilian air traffic, and the whole area was deemed an active conflict zone by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. Within minutes of Putin's announcement, explosions were reported in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa, and the Donbas. Ukrainian officials said that Russia had landed troops in Mariupol and Odessa and launched cruise and ballistic missiles at airfields, military headquarters, and military depots in Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Dnipro. Military vehicles entered Ukraine through Senkivka, at the point where Ukraine meets Belarus and Russia, at around 6:48 am local time. A video captured Russian troops entering Ukraine from Russian-annexed Crimea. The Kremlin planned to initially target artillery and missiles at command and control centres and then send fighter jets and helicopters to quickly gain air superiority. The Center for Naval Analyses said that Russia would create a pincer movement to encircle Kyiv and envelop Ukraine's forces in the east, with the Center for Strategic and International Studies identifying three axes of advance: from Belarus in the north, from Donetsk, and from Crimea in the south. The US said it believed that Russia intended to "decapitate" Ukraine's government and install their own, with US intelligence officials believing that Kyiv would fall within 96 hours given circumstances on the ground. According to former Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Internal affairs, Anton Herashchenko, now serving as an official government advisor, just after 06:30 UTC+2, Russian forces were invading via land near the city of Kharkiv and large-scale amphibious landings were reported in the city of Mariupol. At 07:40, troops were also entering the country from Belarusian territory. The Ukrainian Border Force reported attacks on sites in Luhansk, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, and Zhytomyr, as well as from Crimea. The Ukrainian interior ministry reported that Russian forces captured the villages of Horodyshche and Milove in Luhansk. The Ukrainian Centre for Strategic Communication reported that the Ukrainian army repelled an attack near Shchastia (near Luhansk) and retook control of the town, claiming nearly 50 casualties from the Russian side. After being offline for an hour, the Ukrainian Defence Ministry's website was restored, and declared that it had shot down five planes and one helicopter in Luhansk. Shortly before 07:00 (UTC+2), Zelenskyy announced the introduction of martial law in Ukraine. Zelenskyy also announced that Russia–Ukraine relations were being severed, effective immediately. Russian missiles targeted Ukrainian infrastructure, including Boryspil International Airport, Ukraine's largest airport, east of Kyiv. A military unit in Podilsk was attacked by Russian forces, resulting in six deaths and seven wounded. Another person was killed in the city of Mariupol. A house in Chuhuiv was damaged by Russian artillery; its occupants were injured and one boy died. Eighteen people were killed by Russian bombing in the village of in Odesa Oblast. At 10:00 (UTC+2), it was reported during the briefing of the Ukrainian presidential administration that Russian troops had invaded Ukraine from the north (up to south of the border). Russian troops were said to be active in Kharkiv Oblast, in Chernihiv Oblast, and near Sumy. Zelenskyy's press service also reported that Ukraine had repulsed an attack in Volyn Oblast. At 10:30 (UTC+2), the Ukrainian Defence Ministry reported that Russian troops in Chernihiv Oblast had been stopped, a major battle near Kharkiv was in progress, and Mariupol and Shchastia had been fully reclaimed. The Ukrainian military claimed that six Russian planes, two helicopters, and dozens of armoured vehicles had been destroyed. Russia denied having lost any aircraft or armoured vehicles. Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi published photos of two captured Russian soldiers saying they were from the Russian 423rd Guards Yampolsky Motor Rifle Regiment (military unit 91701). Russia's 74th Guards Motor Rifle Brigade recon platoon surrendered near Chernihiv. In the Battle of Antonov Airport, Russian airborne troops seized the Hostomel Airport in Hostomel, a suburb of Kyiv, after being transported by helicopters early in the morning; a Ukrainian counteroffensive to recapture the airport was launched later in the day. The Rapid Response Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard stated that it had fought at the airfield, shooting down three of 34 Russian helicopters. Belarus allowed Russian troops to invade Ukraine from the north. At 11:00 (UTC+2), Ukrainian border guards reported a border breach in Vilcha (Kyiv Oblast), and border guards in Zhytomyr Oblast were bombarded by Russian rocket launchers (presumably BM-21 Grad). A helicopter without markings reportedly bombed Slavutych border guards position from Belarus. At 11:30 (UTC+2), a second wave of Russian missile bombings targeted the cities of Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkiv, and Lviv. Heavy ground fighting was reported in the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts. By 12:04 (UTC+2), Russian troops advancing from Crimea moved towards the city of Nova Kakhovka in Kherson Oblast. Later that day, Russian troops entered the city of Kherson and took control of the North Crimean Canal, which would allow them to resume water supplies for the peninsula. At 13:00 and 13:19 (UTC+2), Ukrainian border guards and Armed Forces reported two new clashes—near Sumy ("in the direction of Konotop") and Starobilsk (Luhansk Oblast). At 13:32 (UTC+2), Valerii Zaluzhnyi reported four ballistic missiles launched from the territory of Belarus in a southwestern direction. Several stations of Kyiv Metro and Kharkiv Metro were used as bomb shelters for the local population. A local hospital in Vuhledar (Donetsk Oblast) was reported to have been bombed with four civilians dead and 10 wounded (including 6 physicians). At 16:00 (UTC+2), Zelenskyy said that fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces had erupted in the ghost cities of Chernobyl and Pripyat. By around 18:20 (UTC+2), the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was under Russian control, as were the surrounding areas. At 16:18 (UTC+2), Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, proclaimed a curfew lasting from 22:00 to 07:00. At 22:00 (UTC+2), the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine announced that Russian forces had captured Snake Island following a naval and air bombardment of the island. All thirteen border guards on the island were assumed to have been killed in the bombardment, after refusing to surrender to a Russian warship; a recording of the guards refusing an offer to surrender went viral on social media. President Zelenskyy announced that the presumed-dead border guards would be posthumously granted the title of Hero of Ukraine, the country's highest honour. Seventeen civilians were confirmed killed, including thirteen killed in Southern Ukraine, three in Mariupol, and one in Kharkiv. Zelenskyy stated that 137 Ukrainian citizens (both soldiers and civilians) died on the first day of the invasion. Shortly after 23:00 (UTC+2), President Zelenskyy ordered a general mobilisation of all Ukrainian males between 18 and 60 years old; for the same reason, Ukrainian males from that age group were banned from leaving Ukraine. 25 February Around 04:00 (UTC+2) local time, Kyiv was rocked with two explosions from cruise and ballistic missiles. The Ukrainian government said that it had shot down an enemy aircraft over Kyiv, which then crashed into a residential building, setting it on fire. It was later confirmed that the aircraft was a Ukrainian Su-27. Independent military analysts noted that Russian forces in the north of the country appeared to have been heavily engaged by the Ukrainian military. Russian units were attempting to encircle Kyiv and advance into Kharkiv but were bogged down in heavy fighting, with social media images suggesting that some Russian armoured columns had been ambushed. In contrast, Russian operations in the east and south were more effective. The best trained and equipped Russian units were positioned outside Donbas in the southeast and appeared to have maneuvered around the prepared defensive trenches and attacked in the rear of Ukrainian defensive positions. Meanwhile, Russian military forces advancing from Crimea were divided into two columns, with analysts suggesting that they may have been attempting to encircle and entrap the Ukrainian defenders at Donbas, forcing the Ukrainians to abandon their prepared defences and fight in the open. On the morning of 25 February, Zelenskyy accused Russia of targeting civilian sites; Ukrainian Interior Ministry representative Vadym Denysenko said that 33 civilian sites had been hit in the previous 24 hours. Ukraine's Defence Ministry stated that Russian forces had entered the district of Obolon, Kyiv, and were approximately from the Verkhovna Rada building. Some Russian forces had entered northern Kyiv, but had not progressed beyond that. Russia's Spetsnaz troops infiltrated the city with the intention of "hunting" government officials. A Russian tank from a military column was filmed crushing a civilian car in northern Kyiv, veering across the road to crush it. The car driver, an elderly man, survived and was helped out by locals. Ukrainian authorities reported that a non-critical increase in radiation, exceeding control levels, had been detected at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant after Russian troops had occupied the area, saying that this was due to the movement of heavy military vehicles lifting radioactive dust into the air. Russia claimed that it was defending the plant from nationalistic and terrorist groups, and that staff were monitoring radiation levels at the site. The mayor of Horlivka in the Russian-backed Donetsk People's Republic reported that a munition fired by the Ukrainian military hit a local school building, killing two teachers. As Russian troops approached Kyiv, Zelenskyy asked residents to prepare Molotov cocktails to "neutralise" the enemy. Putin meanwhile called on the Ukrainian military to overthrow the government. Ukraine distributed 18,000 guns to Kyiv residents who expressed a willingness to fight and deployed the Territorial Defence Forces, the reserve component of the Ukrainian military, for the defence of Kyiv. The Defence Ministry also announced that all Ukrainian civilians were eligible to volunteer for military service regardless of their age. By the evening, the Pentagon stated that Russia had not established air supremacy of Ukrainian airspace, which US analysts had predicted would happen quickly after hostilities began. Ukrainian air defence capabilities had been degraded by Russian attacks, but remained operational. Military aircraft from both nations continued to fly over Ukraine. The Pentagon also said that Russian troops were also not advancing as quickly as either US intelligence or Moscow believed they would, that Russia had not taken any population centres, and that Ukrainian command and control was still intact. The Pentagon warned that Russia had sent into Ukraine only 30 percent of the 150,000–190,000 troops it had massed at the border. Reports circulated of a Ukrainian missile attack against the Millerovo air base in Russia, to prevent the base being used to provide air support to Russian troops in Ukraine. Zelenskyy indicated that the Ukrainian government was not "afraid to talk about neutral status". On the same day, President Putin indicated to the president of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping that "Russia is willing to conduct high-level negotiations with Ukraine". 26 February At 00:00 UTC, heavy fighting was reported to the south of Kyiv, near the city of Vasylkiv and its air base. The Ukrainian General Staff claimed that a Ukrainian Su-27 fighter had shot down a Russian Il-76 transport plane carrying paratroopers near the city. Vasylkiv mayor Natalia Balasinovich said her city had been successfully defended by Ukrainian forces and the fighting was ending. Around 03:00, more than 48 explosions in 30 minutes were reported around Kyiv, as the Ukrainian military was reported to be fighting near the CHP-6 power station in the northern neighbourhood of Troieshchyna. BBC News reported the attack may be an attempt to cut off electricity to the city. Heavy fighting was reported near the Kyiv Zoo and the Shuliavka neighbourhood. Early on 26 February, the Ukrainian military said it had repelled a Russian attack on an army base located on Peremohy Avenue, a main road in Kyiv; it also claimed to have repelled a Russian assault on the city of Mykolaiv on the Black Sea. American officials said a Russian Il-76 transport plane had been shot down by Ukrainian forces near Bila Tserkva, about south of Kyiv. President Zelenskyy, remaining in Kyiv, had refused US offers of evacuation, instead requesting more ammunition for Ukrainian troops. Hundreds of casualties were reported during overnight fighting in Kyiv, where shelling destroyed an apartment building, bridges, and schools. The Russian defence ministry said it had captured Melitopol, near the Sea of Azov, although UK minister James Heappey questioned this claim. At 11:00, the Ukrainian General Staff reported that its aircraft had conducted 34 sorties in the past 24 hours, indicating that Russia had continued to, unexpectedly, fail to gain air superiority. By the afternoon, most of the Russian forces that had amassed around Ukraine were fighting in the country. Mayor Klitschko of Kyiv imposed a curfew from 5 p.m. Saturday until 8 a.m. Monday, warning that anyone outside during that time would be considered enemy sabotage and reconnaissance groups. Internet connections were disrupted in parts of Ukraine, particularly in the south and east. In response to a request from Mykhailo Fedorov, the Vice-Prime Minister of Ukraine, Elon Musk announced that he had turned on his Starlink service in Ukraine, with "more terminals en route". Ukrainian Interior Ministry representative Vadym Denysenko stated that Russian forces had advanced further towards Enerhodar and the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant. He stated that they were deploying Grad missiles there and warned that they may attack the plant. The Zaporizhia Regional State Administration stated that the Russian forces advancing on Enerhodar had later returned to Bolshaya Belozerka, a village located from the city, on the same day. A Japanese-owned cargo ship, the MV Namura Queen with 20 crew members onboard was struck by a Russian missile in the Black Sea. A Moldovan ship, MV Millennial Spirit, was also shelled by a Russian warship, causing serious injuries. Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic, confirmed that the Kadyrovtsy, units loyal to the Chechen Republic, had been deployed into Ukraine as well. CNN obtained footage of a Russian TOS-1 system, which carries thermobaric weapons, near the Ukrainian border. Western officials warned such weapons would cause indiscriminate violence. The Russian military had used these kind of weapons in the First Chechen War in the 1990s. A six-year-old boy was killed and multiple others were wounded when artillery fire hit the Okhmatdyt Children's Hospital in Kyiv. The Ukrainian military claimed to have blown up a convoy of 56 tankers in Chernihiv Oblast carrying diesel for Russian forces. By the end of the day, Russian forces had failed in their attempts to encircle and isolate Kyiv, despite mechanised and airborne attacks. The Ukrainian General Staff reported that Russia had committed its operational northern reserve of 17 battalion tactical groups (BTGs) after Ukrainian forces halted the advance of 14 BTGs to the north of Kyiv. Russia temporarily abandoned attempts to seize Chernihiv and Kharkiv after attacks were repelled by determined Ukrainian resistance, and bypassed those cities to continue towards Kyiv. In the south, Russia took Berdiansk and threatened to encircle Mariupol. The ISW said that poor planning and execution was leading to morale and logistical issues for the Russian military in northern Ukraine. US and UK officials reported that Russian forces faced shortages of gasoline and diesel, leading to tanks and armoured vehicles stalling and slowing their advance. Videos also emerged online of Russian tanks and armoured personnel carriers (APCs) stranded on the roadside. Russia continued to not use its full arsenal; the ISW said this was likely to avoid the diplomatic and public relations consequences of mass civilian casualties, as well as to avoid creating rubble that would impede the advance of its own forces. 27 February Overnight, a gas pipeline outside Kharkiv was reported to have been blown up by a Russian attack, while an oil depot in the village of Kriachky near Vasylkiv ignited after being hit by missiles. Heavy fighting near the Vasylkiv air base prevented firefighters from tackling the blaze. Also at night, it was reported that a group of Ukrainian Roma (gypsies) had seized a Russian tank in Liubymivka, close to Kakhovka, in the Kherson Oblast. Furthermore, the Presidential Office stated that Zhuliany Airport was also bombed. Russian-backed separatists in Luhansk province said that an oil terminal in the town of Rovenky was hit by a Ukrainian missile. The State Emergency Service of Ukraine rescued 80 people from a nine-story residential building in Kharkiv after Russian artillery hit the building, extensively damaging it and killing a woman. Nova Kakhovka's mayor, Vladimir Kovalenko, confirmed that the city had been seized by Russian troops, and he accused them of destroying the settlements of Kozatske and Vesele. Russian troops also entered Kharkiv, with fighting taking place in the city streets, including in the city centre. At the same time, Russian tanks started pushing into Sumy. Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that Russian forces had completely surrounded Kherson and Berdiansk, in addition to capturing Henichesk and Kherson International Airport in Chernobaevka. By the early afternoon, Kharkiv Oblast governor Oleh Synyehubov stated that Ukrainian forces had regained full control of Kharkiv, and Ukrainian authorities said that dozens of Russian troops in the city had surrendered. Hennadiy Matsegora, the mayor of Kupiansk, later agreed to hand over control of the city to Russian forces. Putin ordered Russian nuclear forces on a high alert, a "special regime of combat duty", in response to what he called "aggressive statements" by NATO members. This statement was met with harsh criticism from NATO, the EU, and the United Nations (UN); Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg described it as being "dangerous and irresponsible", while UN official Stéphane Dujarric called the idea of a nuclear war "inconceivable". Ukraine said that it would send a delegation to meet with a Russian delegation for talks in Gomel, Belarus. Zelenskyy's office said that they agreed to meet without preconditions. Zelenskyy also said that he talked by telephone with Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko and stated that he was promised that Belarusian troops would not be sent to Ukraine. According to the intelligence analyst firm Rochan Consulting, Russia had been able to connect Crimea with areas in eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russian forces by besieging Mariupol and Berdiansk. Oleksiy Arestovych, an advisor to President Zelenskyy, stated that Berdiansk had been captured by Russian forces. The main Russian force from the Crimea was advancing north towards Zaporizhzhia, while a Russian force on the east bank of the Dnipro threatened Mykolaiv. Russian forces were pushed back in Bucha and Irpin to the north-west of Kyiv. According to UK military intelligence, Russian mechanised forces had bypassed Chernihiv as they moved towards Kyiv. Luhansk Oblast governor Serhiy Haidai accused Russian forces of destroying Stanytsia Luhanska and Shchastia before capturing them, while Donetsk Oblast governor Pavlo Kyrylenko also accused them of destroying Volnovakha. The ISW said that Russian forces in northern Ukraine had likely conducted an "operational pause" starting the previous day in order to deploy additional forces and supplies; Russian military resources not previously part of the invasion force were being moved toward Ukraine in anticipation of a more difficult conflict than initially expected. 28 February Fighting took place around Mariupol throughout the night. On the morning of 28 February, the UK defence ministry said that most Russian ground forces remained over north of Kyiv, having been slowed by Ukrainian resistance at Hostomel Airport. It also said that fighting was taking place near Chernihiv and Kharkiv, and that both cities remained under Ukrainian control. Maxar Technologies released satellite images that showed a Russian column, including tanks and self-propelled artillery, traveling toward Kyiv. The firm initially stated that the convoy was approximately long, but clarified later that day that the column was actually more than in length. The Russian Defense Ministry announced the capture of Enerhodar, in addition to the surroundings of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. Ukraine denied that it had lost control of the plant. Enerhodar's mayor Dmitri Orlov denied that the city and the plant had been captured. The Times reported that the Wagner Group had been redeployed from Africa to Kyiv, with orders to assassinate Zelenskyy during the first days of the Russian invasion. Both the Ukrainian and Russian governments meanwhile accused each other of using human shields. Arestovych claimed that more than 200 Russian military vehicles had been destroyed or damaged on the highway between Irpin and Zhytomyr by 14:00 EET. Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Kharkiv, stated that nine civilians were killed and 37 were wounded due to Russian shelling on the city during the day. Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the US, accused Russia of using a vacuum bomb. Talks between Ukrainian and Russian representatives in Gomel, Belarus, ended without a breakthrough. As a condition for ending the invasion, Putin demanded Ukraine's neutrality, "denazification" and "demilitarisation", and recognition of Crimea, which had been annexed by Russia, as Russian territory. Russia increased strikes on Ukrainian airfields and logistics centres, particularly in the west, in an apparent attempt to ground the Ukrainian air force and disrupt resupply from nations to the west. In the north, ISW called the decision to use heavy artillery in Kharkiv "a dangerous inflection." Additional Russian forces and logistics columns in southern Belarus appeared to be maneuvering to support a Kyiv assault. An analyst with the Royal United Services Institute stated that the Ukrainian regular army is no longer functioning in formations but in largely fixed defenses, and was increasingly integrated with Territorial Defense Forces and armed volunteers. 1 March According to Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, the governor of Sumy Oblast, more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed during Russian shelling of a military base in Okhtyrka. A Russian missile later hit the regional administration building on Freedom Square during a bombardment of Kharkiv, killing nine civilians, including three children, and wounding 37 others. In southern Ukraine, the city of Kherson was reported to be under attack by Russian forces. The Ukrainian government announced it would sell war bonds to fund its armed forces. There was disagreement between the US and Ukraine regarding Belarus's involvement in the invasion. Verkhovna Rada stated that the Armed Forces of Belarus had joined Russia's invasion and had entered the Chernihiv Oblast earlier that morning. UNIAN stated that a column of 33 military vehicles had entered the region. The US disagreed with these claims, saying that there was "no indication" that Belarus has invaded. Hours prior, Belarus's president Lukashenko said that Belarus would not join the war, and said that Russian troops were not attacking Ukraine from Belarusian territory. After Russia's Defense Ministry announced that it would hit targets to stop "information attacks", missiles struck broadcasting infrastructure for the primary television and radio transmitters in Kyiv, taking TV channels off the air. Ukrainian officials said the attack killed five people and damaged the nearby Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, Ukraine's main Holocaust memorial. An official from the US Department of Defense stated that Russian forces captured Berdiansk and Melitopol. The official also stated that Russia launched approximately 400 missiles at Ukraine, whose anti-missile defences remain operational, that Russia has deployed launchers capable of firing thermobaric weapons but it is not known if thermobaric weapons are in Ukraine, that approximately 80% of the Russian forces that surrounded Ukraine are inside the country, and that some Russian units have either run out of food and fuel, or surrendered. 2 March Guerilla hackers in Ukraine will fight Russia through cyber-attacks. Foreign military support to Ukraine Under the leadership of Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian military had deteriorated. It was further weakened following Yanukovych's fall and his succession by West-looking leaders. Subsequently, a number of Ukraine's allies began providing military aid to rebuild its military forces. This assisted the Ukrainian military to improve its quality, with the Ukrainian army achieving noticeable successes against Russian proxy forces in Donbas. Notably, the Ukrainian armed forces have begun acquiring Turkey's Bayraktar TB2 unmanned combat aerial vehicles since 2019, which was first used in October 2021 to target Russian separatist artillery position in Donbas. As Russia began building up its equipment and troops on Ukraine's borders, NATO member states increased the rate of weapons delivery. US president Joe Biden used Presidential Drawdown Authorities in August and December 2021 to provide $260 million in aid. These included deliveries of FGM-148 Javelins and other anti-armour weapons, small arms, various calibres of ammunition, and other equipment. Following the invasion, nations began making further commitments of arms deliveries. Belgium, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the UK announced that they would send supplies to support and defend the Ukrainian military and government. On 24 February, Poland delivered some military supplies to Ukraine, including 100 mortars, various ammunition, and over 40,000 helmets. While some of the 30 members of NATO are sending weapons, NATO as an organisation is not. In January 2022, Germany ruled out sending weapons to Ukraine and prevented Estonia, through export controls on German-made arms, from sending former East German D-30 howitzers to Ukraine. Germany announced it was sending 5,000 helmets and a field hospital to Ukraine, to which Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko derisively responded: "What will they send next? Pillows?" On 26 February, in a reversal of its previous position, Germany approved the Netherlands' request to send 400 rocket-propelled grenades to Ukraine, as well as 500 Stinger missiles and 1,000 anti-tank weapons from its own supplies. On 27 February, the EU agreed to purchase weapons for Ukraine collectively. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell stated that it would purchase €450 million (US$502 million) in lethal assistance and an additional €50 million ($56 million) in non-lethal supplies. Borrell said that EU defence ministers still needed to determine the details of how to purchase the materiel and transfer it to Ukraine, but that Poland had agreed to act as a distribution hub. Borrell also stated that they intended to supply Ukraine with fighter jets that they are already able to pilot. These would not be paid for through the €450 million assistance package. Poland, Bulgaria, and Slovakia have MiG-29s and Slovakia also has Su-25s, which are fighter jets that Ukraine already flies and can be transferred without pilot training. On 1 March, Poland, Slovakia, and Bulgaria confirmed they would not provide fighter jets to Ukraine. On 26 February, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that he had authorised $350 million in lethal military assistance, including "anti-armor and anti-aircraft systems, small arms and various caliber munitions, body armor, and related equipment". Russia claimed that US drones gave intelligence to the Ukrainian navy to help target its warships in the Black Sea, which the US denied. On 27 February, Portugal announced that it would send H&K G3 automatic rifles and other military equipment. Sweden and Denmark both decided to send 5,000 and 2,700 anti-tank weapons, respectively, to Ukraine. Denmark would also provide parts from 300 non-operational Stinger missiles, that the US would first help make operational. The Norwegian government, initially saying it would not send weapons to Ukraine but would send other military equipment like helmets and protective gear, announced on the evening of 28 February that it would also donate up to 2,000 M72 LAW anti-tank weapons to Ukraine. In a similarly major policy shift for a neutral country, Finland announced that it would send 2,500 assault rifles together with 150,000 rounds, 1,500 single-shot antitank weapons and 70,000 combat-ration packages, to add to the bulletproof vests, helmets, and medical supplies already announced. Humanitarian impact Casualties Refugees Due to the continued military build-up along the Ukrainian border, many neighbouring governments and aid organisations have been preparing for a potential mass displacement event for weeks prior to the actual invasion. The Ukrainian Defence Minister estimated in December 2021 that an invasion could potentially force between three and five million people to flee their homes. It was reported that Ukrainian border guards did not permit a number of non-Ukrainians (many of them foreign students stuck in the country) to cross the border into neighbouring safe nations, claiming that priority was being given to Ukrainian citizens to cross first. The Ukrainian Foreign Minister said there were no restrictions on foreign citizens leaving Ukraine, and that the border force had been told to allow all foreign citizens to leave. According to Bal Kaur Sandhu, General Secretary of Khalsa Aid, Indian students trying to leave Ukraine faced serious difficulties and discrimination when attempting to cross the border, were subjected to violence and "have quite verbally been told that your government is not supporting us, we are not supporting you." Numbers and countries In the first four days after the invasion, more than a half-million Ukrainians fled the country as refugees, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. About 281,000 went to Poland, almost 85,000 to Hungary, at least 36,390 to Moldova, more than 32,500 to Romania, 30,000 to Slovakia, and about 34,600 to various other countries. Citing UN estimates, Janez Lenarčič, the EU Commissioner for Crisis Management, said on 27 February that a "very rough" estimate of the ultimate total number of displaced Ukrainians would be 18 million (4 million refugees, and 7 million internally displaced persons). On 24 February, the Government of Latvia approved a contingency plan to receive and accommodate approximately 10,000 refugees from Ukraine, and two days later the first refugees, assisted by the Latvian Samaritan Association, began arriving. Several non-governmental organizations, municipalities, schools and institutions also pledged to provide accommodation. On 27 February, around 20 volunteer professional drivers departed to Lublin with donated supplies, bringing Ukrainian refugees to Latvia on their way back. To facilitate border crossings, Poland as well as Romania lifted COVID-19 entry rules. The government of Hungary announced on 24 February that all persons crossing the border from Ukraine, those without a travel document and arriving from third countries would also be admitted after appropriate screening. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that Hungary is a "friendly place" for people arriving from Ukraine. Many of the Ukrainians who fled to Hungary were Transcarpathian Hungarians; none of them requested any form of protection. Men between the age of 18 and 60 were denied from leaving Ukraine. Ukrainian refugees started crossing into Romania as well. Most of them entered through Siret in Suceava County. In the first three days after the invasion, 31,000 Ukrainians entered Romania, of which only 111 requested some form of protection. Many used the Romanian or Ukrainian passport they held, preferring not to seek asylum for the time being. Romania's Interior Ministry approved on 26 February the installation of the first mobile camp near the Siret customs. А large group of refugees is also expected in Bulgaria. Various municipalities announced their intentions to provide accommodations for Bulgarians and Ukrainians fleeing the country on 25 February, and had begun to modify and/or build housing locations for new arrivals. On 26 February, Slovakia announced that they would give money to people who supported Ukrainian refugees. Over the previous 24 hour period, Slovakia had received over 10,000 refugees, mostly women and children. International organizations On 27 February, the EU agreed to take in Ukrainian refugees for up to three years without asking them to apply for asylum. EU ministers asked Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson to prepare plans for invoking the Temporary Protection Directive, which would be the first time that the directive has ever been invoked. Most countries of the Schengen Area, including Poland, Germany, and Switzerland, have waived passport requirements for Ukrainians fleeing the war zone. War crimes The invasion of Ukraine violates the Charter of the United Nations and constitutes a crime of aggression according to international criminal law; the crime of aggression can be prosecuted under universal jurisdiction. The invasion also violates the Rome Statute, which prohibits "the invasion or attack by the armed forces of a State of the territory of another State, or any military occupation, however temporary, resulting from such invasion or attack, or any annexation by the use of force of the territory of another State or part thereof". Ukraine has not ratified the Rome Statute and Russia withdrew its signature from it in 2016. On 25 February, Amnesty International said that it had collected and analysed evidence showing that Russia had violated international humanitarian law, including attacks that could amount to war crimes; it also said that Russian claims to be only using precision-guided weapons were false. Amnesty and Human Rights Watch said that Russian forces had carried out indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas and strikes on hospitals, including firing a 9M79 Tochka ballistic missile with a cluster munition warhead towards a hospital in Vuhledar, which killed four civilians and wounded ten others, including six healthcare staff. Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, the governor of Sumy Oblast, said that at least six Ukrainians, including a seven-year-old girl, had died in a Russian attack on Okhtyrka on 26 February, and that a kindergarten and orphanage had been hit. Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba called for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate the incident. On 27 February, Ukraine filed a lawsuit against the Russian Federation before the International Court of Justice for violation of the Genocide Convention of 1948. On 28 February, Karim Ahmad Khan, the chief prosecutor of the ICC, said there was a "reasonable basis" for allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity. On 28 February, a diplomatic crisis within Greece–Russia relations was sparked when the latter's air forces bombarded two villages of ethnic minority Greeks in Ukraine near Mariupol, killing twelve Greeks. Greece protested strongly, summoning the Russian ambassador. French president Emmanuel Macron and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, along with Germany, and other countries, expressed their condolences to Greece. Russian authorities denied responsibility. Greek authorities stated that they had evidence of Russian involvement. In response, Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that his country would send defensive military equipment and humanitarian aid to support Ukraine. On 28 February, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch denounced the use of cluster munitions and thermobaric weapons by Russian invasion forces in Ukraine. The use of cluster munitions in war is prohibited by the Convention on Cluster Munitions of 2008. Russia and Ukraine are not part of such convention. On 1 March, President Zelenskyy said there was evidence that civilian areas had been targeted during a Russian artillery bombardment of Kharkiv earlier that day, and described it as a war crime. Ramifications Sanctions Western countries, US and EU's allies, and others, began imposing limited sanctions on Russia when it recognised the independence of Donbas. With the commencement of attacks on 24 February, large numbers of additional countries began applying sanctions with the aim of crippling the Russian economy. The sanctions were wide-ranging, targeting individuals, banks, businesses, monetary exchanges, bank transfers, exports, and imports. In a 22 February speech, US president Joe Biden announced restrictions against four Russian banks, including V.E.B., as well as on corrupt billionaires close to Putin. The US also instituted export controls, a novel sanction focused on restricting Russian access to high-tech components, both hardware and software, made with any parts or intellectual property from the US. The sanction required that any person or company that wanted to sell technology, semiconductors, encryption software, lasers, or sensors to Russia request a licence, which by default was denied. The enforcement mechanism involved sanctions against the person or company, with the sanctions focused on the shipbuilding, aerospace, and defence industries. UK prime minister Boris Johnson announced that all major Russian banks would have their assets frozen and be excluded from the UK financial system, and that some export licenses to Russia would be suspended. He also introduced a deposit limit for Russian citizens in UK bank accounts, and froze the assets of over 100 additional individuals and entities. German chancellor Olaf Scholz indefinitely blocked the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in response to the Russian invasion of Donbas. Nord Stream 2 has become insolvent as a result. The foreign ministers of the Baltic states called for Russia to be cut off from SWIFT, the global messaging network for international payments. Other EU member states had initially been reluctant to do this, both because European lenders held most of the nearly $30 billion in foreign banks' exposure to Russia and because China had developed an alternative to SWIFT called CIPS; a weaponisation of SWIFT would provide greater impetus to the development of CIPS which, in turn, could weaken SWIFT as well as the West's control over international finance. Other leaders calling for Russia to be stopped from accessing SWIFT include Czech president Miloš Zeman, and UK prime minister Boris Johnson. Germany in particular had resisted calls for Russia to be banned from SWIFT, citing the effect it would have on payments for Russian gas and oil; on 26 February, the German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock and economy minister Robert Habeck made a joint statement backing targeted restrictions of Russia from SWIFT. Shortly thereafter, it was announced that major Russian banks would be removed from SWIFT, although there would still be limited accessibility to ensure the continued ability to pay for gas shipments. Furthermore, it was announced that the West would place sanctions on the Russian Central Bank, which holds $630bn in foreign reserves, to prevent it from liquidating assets to offset the impact of sanctions. Faisal Islam of BBC News stated that the measures were far from normal sanctions and were "better seen as a form of economic war." The intent of the sanctions was to push Russia into a deep recession with the likelihood of bank runs and hyperinflation. Islam noted that targeting a G20 central bank in this way had never been done before. Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia and former president Dmitry Medvedev derided Western sanctions imposed on Russia, including personal sanctions, and commented that they were a sign of "political impotence" from NATO's withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying they increased government support; he threatened to nationalise foreign assets that companies held inside Russia. On the morning of 24 February, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, announced "massive" EU sanctions to be adopted by the union. The sanctions targeted technological transfers, Russian banks, and Russian assets. Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, stated that Russia would face "unprecedented isolation" as the EU would impose the "harshest package of sanctions [which the union has] ever implemented". He also said that "these are among the darkest hours of Europe since the Second World War". President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola called for "immediate, quick, solid and swift action" and convened an extraordinary session of Parliament for 1 March. On 25 February, the Federated States of Micronesia severed its diplomatic ties with the Russian Federation in response to the invasion. On 26 February, the French Navy intercepted Russian cargo ship Baltic Leader in the English Channel. The ship was suspected of belonging to a company targeted by the sanctions. The ship was escorted to the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer and was being investigated. The UK banned the Russian airline and flag carrier Aeroflot as well as Russian private jets from UK airspace. On 25 February, Poland, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic announced that they would close their airspace to Russian airlines; Estonia followed suit the next day. In response, Russia banned British airplanes from its airspace. S7 Airlines, Russia's largest domestic carrier, announced that it was cancelling all flights to Europe, and US carrier Delta Air Lines announced that it was suspending ties with Aeroflot. Russia further banned from its airspace all flights from carriers in Bulgaria, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Estonia, Romania, Lithuania, and Latvia announced they would also ban Russian airlines from their airspace. Germany also banned Russian aircraft from its airspace. On 27 February, the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it had closed Portuguese airspace to Russian planes. The same day, the EU announced that it would close its airspace to Russian aircraft. On 26 February, two Chinese state banks—the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which is the largest bank in the world, and the Bank of China, which is the country's biggest currency trader—were limiting financing to purchase Russian raw materials, which was limiting Russian access to foreign currency. On 27 February, Ignazio Cassis, the president of the Swiss Confederation, announced that the Swiss government was very likely to sanction Russia and to freeze all Russian assets in the country. On February 28, Switzerland froze a number of Russian assets and joined EU sanctions. According to Cassis, the decision was unprecedented but consistent with Swiss neutrality. On that same day, Monaco adopted economic sanctions and procedures for freezing funds identical to those taken by most European states. On 28 February, Singapore became the first Southeast Asian country to impose sanctions on Russia by restricting banks and transactions linked to Russia; the move was described by the South China Morning Post as being "almost unprecedented". The same day, South Korea announced it would participate in the SWIFT ban against Russia, as well as announcing an export ban on strategic materials covered by the "Big 4" treaties to which Korea belongs—the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Wassenaar Arrangement, the Australia Group, and the Missile Technology Control Regime; in addition, 57 non-strategic materials, including semiconductors, IT equipment, sensors, lasers, maritime equipment, and aerospace equipment, were planned to be included in the export ban "soon". On 28 February, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that Turkey would limit Russian access to the Black Sea. On February 28, Japan also announced its central bank would join sanctions, limiting transactions with Russia's central bank, as well as by imposing sanctions on Belarusian organizations and individuals, including president Aleksandr Lukashenko, adding that the country had "evident involvement in the invasion" of Ukraine. According to The Wall Street Journal, payments for energy raw materials have been largely spared from these measures. On 28 February, the Central Bank of Russia was blocked from accessing more than $400 billion in foreign-exchange reserves held abroad. Sergei Aleksashenko, the former Russian deputy finance minister, said: "This is a kind of financial nuclear bomb that is falling on Russia." European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said that Western nations "cannot block the reserves of the Russian central bank in Moscow or in China". Economic impact In Russia, the economic sanctions had an immediate effect. The Russian stock market crashed, falling 39%, as measured by the RTS Index, on the first day of the invasion, with similar falls in the following days. The Russian ruble fell to record lows, as Russians rushed to exchange money. Stock exchanges in Moscow and St Petersburg were suspended. On 26 February, S&P Global Ratings downgraded the Russian government credit rating to "junk", potentially forcing funds that require investment-grade bonds to dump Russian debt. The Central Bank of Russia announced its first market interventions since the 2014 annexation of Crimea to stabilise the market. It also raised interest rates to 20% and banned foreigners from selling local securities. According to a former deputy chairman of the Russian central bank, the sanctions put the Russian National Wealth Fund at risk of disappearing. On 28 February, with the value of the Russian ruble and the share prices for Russian equities falling on major exchanges, Moscow's MOEX exchange was closed for the day. As of 28 February, the price of Russia's credit default swaps signaled about a 56% chance of default. In Ukraine, the National Bank suspended currency markets, announcing that it would fix the official exchange rate. The central bank also limited cash withdrawals to 100,000 hryvnia per day and prohibited withdrawal in foreign currencies by members of the general public. The PFTS Stock Exchange stated on 24 February that trading was suspended due to the emergency events. As a result of the invasion, Brent oil prices rose above $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014. The invasion threatened the energy supply from Russia to Europe and could impact flows through pipelines such as Yamal-Europe, Nord Stream and TurkStream, causing European countries to seek to diversify their energy supply routes. Wheat prices surged to their highest prices since 2008 in response to the attack. At the time of the invasion Ukraine was the fourth-largest exporter of corn and wheat and the world's largest exporter of sunflower oil, with Russia and Ukraine together exporting 29% of the world's wheat supply and 75% of world sunflower oil exports. The benchmark Chicago Board of Trade March wheat futures contract reached its highest price since 2012 on 25 February, with the prices of corn and soybean also spiking. The American Bakers Association president warned that the price of anything made with grain would begin rising as all the grain markets are interrelated. The chief agricultural economist for Wells Fargo stated that Ukraine would likely be severely limited in its ability to plant crops in spring 2022 and lose an agricultural year, while an embargo on Russian crops would create more inflation of food prices. Recovering crop production capabilities may take years, even after fighting has stopped. Surging wheat prices resulting from the conflict have strained countries such as Egypt, which are highly dependent upon Russian and Ukrainian wheat exports, and have provoked fears of social unrest. On 24 February, China announced that it would drop all restrictions on Russian wheat, in what the South China Morning Post called a potential "lifeline" for the Russian economy. Kristalina Georgieva, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, warned that the conflict posed a substantial economic risk for the region and internationally and added that the Fund could help other countries impacted by the conflict, complementary to a $2.2 billion loan package being prepared to assist Ukraine. David Malpass, the president of the World Bank Group, said that the conflict would have far-reaching economic and social effects and reported that the bank was preparing options for significant economic and fiscal support to Ukrainians and the region. On 27 February, BP, one of the world's seven largest oil and gas companies and the single largest foreign investor in Russia, announced it was divesting from Rosneft. The Rosneft interest comprises about half of BP's oil and gas reserves and a third of its production. The divestment may cost the company up to $25 billion and analysts noted that it was unlikely that BP would be able to recover anywhere near the value of Rosneft. The same day, the Government Pension Fund of Norway, the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, announced that it would divest itself from its Russian assets. The fund owned about 25 billion Norwegian krone ($2.83 billion) in Russian company shares and government bonds. The next day, Shell plc also announced that it would be pulling its investments in Russia. On 1 March 2022, the Italian energy company ENI announced that it would cancel its investments into the Blue Stream pipeline. On 1 March, the shipping company, Maersk, suspended all container shipments to Russia, excluding foodstuffs, and medical and humanitarian supplies. Despite unprecedented international sanctions against Russia, payments for energy raw materials have been largely spared from these measures. Likewise food is unlikely to be part of sanctions because it affects the common man. Russia and Ukraine are major producers of wheat that is exported through the Bosporus to Mediterranean and North African countries. Both energy production and food supplies are essential in maintaining global peace and stability. North Crimean Canal Following Russia's annexation of Crimea, Ukraine blocked the North Crimean Canal, which provided 85% of Crimea's drinking water. On 24 February, the first day of the invasion, Russian troops advancing from Crimea established control over the North Crimean Canal. Sergey Aksyonov, the head of the Republic of Crimea, told local authorities to prepare the canal to receive water from the Dnieper river and resume the supply of water, which was planned for the following day. On 26 February, the concrete dam was reportedly destroyed by an explosion and the water supply was resumed. Media depictions Throughout the invasion, messages, videos and photos, and audio recordings were widely shared across social media and news sites and by friends and family of Ukrainian and Russian citizens. While many were authentic, first-hand images of the conflict, others were images and videos of past conflicts and events or were otherwise misleading. Some of these were created to spread disinformation or propaganda. Facebook allowed Ukrainian users to lock their pages after the US warned that Russia was creating kill lists of Ukrainians. Twitter paused post recommendations for unfollowed accounts in Russia and Ukraine, and temporarily halted the operations of its advertising platform within the two countries. Censorship and propaganda Both Zelenskyy and his wife Olena have used social media to post statements, videos and photos in attempts to motivate both the Ukrainian citizens and the rest of the world against the invasion. Many have made videos and posts highlighting comments made by Zelenskyy to show support of his efforts and attempting to aid Ukrainians fighting against the invasion. The Russian censorship apparatus Roskomnadzor ordered the country's media to only employ information from Russian state sources or face fines and blocks, accusing a number of independent media outlets of spreading "unreliable socially significant untrue information" about the shelling of Ukrainian cities by the Russian army and civilian deaths. The Russian government ordered media organizations to delete stories that describe the Russian invasion of Ukraine as an "assault", "invasion", or a "declaration of war". Roskomnadzor launched an investigation against the Novaya Gazeta, Echo of Moscow, inoSMI, MediaZona, New Times, Dozhd (TV Rain), and other Russian media outlets for publishing "inaccurate information about the shelling of Ukrainian cities and civilian casualties in Ukraine as a result of the actions of the Russian Army." Russian state-controlled media, such as Russia-1 and Channel One, and pro-Kremlin TV pundits like Vladimir Solovyov mostly followed the government's narrative on the war. RT, a Russian state-controlled television network, was banned in Poland and suspended by television service providers in Australia, Canada, and Gibraltar. Many RT journalists resigned from RT following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. On 25 February, Russia announced that it was limiting access to Facebook; Russia's Foreign Ministry and the Prosecutor General's office announced that Facebook violates the rights of citizens of the Russian Federation. The company stated it had refused a Russian demand to stop fact-checking the posts made by four state-owned media organisations: Zvezda, RIA Novosti, Lenta.ru, and Gazeta.Ru. On 26 February, Facebook announced that it would ban Russian state media from advertising and monetising content on its platform. Russia restricted access to Twitter later that day. Facebook uncovered a Russian disinformation campaign using fake accounts, and attempts to hack the accounts of high-profile Ukrainians, which could be used to spread misinformation to large numbers of followers. On 28 February, Russian teachers received detailed instructions on how to talk to students about the invasion of Ukraine. The Mayakovsky Theatre in Moscow received a government email "to refrain from any comments on the course of military actions in Ukraine", warning that any negative comments would be "regarded as treason against the Motherland". On 1 March, Russia's Communication Regulator made demands for TikTok to stop including military-related content in recommended posts to minors, claiming much of the content was anti-Russian. Also on 1 March, YouTube announced that it would block Russian state-linked channels, including those of RT and Sputnik, across Europe, to prevent Russian disinformation. The same day, Russian authorities blocked access to Echo of Moscow and Dozhd, Russia's last independent TV station, claiming that they were spreading "deliberately false information about the actions of Russian military personnel" as well as "information calling for extremist activity" and "violence". Also on that day, Roskomnadzor threatened to block access to the Russian Wikipedia in Russia over the article "Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022". Poskomnadzor claimed that the article contains "illegally distributed information", including "reports about numerous casualties among service personnel of the Russian Federation and also the civilian population of Ukraine, including children." Reactions United Nations UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged Russia to immediately end aggression in Ukraine, while the French and US ambassadors announced that they would present a resolution to the UN Security Council on 25 February 2022. The UK, the US, Canada, and the EU labelled the attack as unprovoked and unjustified, and promised harsh sanctions on Russian individuals, businesses, and assets. On 25 February, Russia vetoed a Security Council draft resolution "deploring, in the strongest terms, the Russian Federation's aggression", as expected. Eleven countries voted in favour, and three abstained, among them China, India, and the United Arab Emirates. On 27 February, the UN Security Council voted to hold an emergency special session of the UN General Assembly to vote on a similar resolution. The eleventh ever special session was convened on 28 February, with speeches by members expected to last several days. During a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council on 1 March, over 100 diplomats walked out in protest over a speech by Sergei Lavrov. NATO Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, member states of NATO were without a common enemy. Subsequently, cohesion among member states declined, with many reducing their defence spending and drawing down their forces along the border with Russia. NATO had attempted to improve the situation by setting a defence spending target of 2% of GDP for each of its members; however, most member states had not met the target as of 2022. The invasion of Ukraine had an immediate effect on this situation with NATO states boosting their defence budgets and sending personnel and equipment to the border. Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia triggered NATO security consultations under Article 4. The Estonian government issued a statement by Prime Minister Kaja Kallas saying: "Russia's widespread aggression is a threat to the entire world and to all NATO countries, and NATO consultations on strengthening the security of the Allies must be initiated to implement additional measures for ensuring the defence of NATO Allies. The most effective response to Russia's aggression is unity." Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary general of NATO, vowed at a press conference in Brussels to send NATO troops to Poland in a matter of days following the Russian invasion. On 24 February, Stoltenberg announced new plans that "will enable us to deploy capabilities and forces, including the NATO Response Force, to where they are needed". Following the invasion, NATO announced plans to increase military deployments in the Baltics, Romania, and Poland. After the 25 February UN Security Council meeting, Stoltenberg announced that parts of the NATO Response Force would be deployed, for the first time ever, to NATO members along the Eastern border. He stated that forces would include elements of the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF), currently led by France. Stoltenberg further stated that some NATO members are supplying weapons to Ukraine, including those for air defence. The US had announced on 24 February that it would be deploying 7,000 troops to join the 5,000 already in Europe. NATO forces include the USS Harry S. Trumans Carrier Strike Group 8, which entered the Mediterranean Sea the previous week as part of a planned exercise. The carrier strike group was placed under NATO command, the first time this had occurred since the Cold War. On 27 February, German chancellor Olaf Scholz announced 100 billion euros (US$113 billion) in new military spending, stating: "With the invasion of Ukraine, we are in a new era." Defense spending is set to rise to at least the target 2% of GDP expected of NATO members by 2024. During the Cold War, Finland and Sweden had remained neutral buffer states between NATO and the Soviet Union. To retain their neutral status, both states minimized their cooperation with NATO. Following the Fall of Communism, both states increased their cooperation with NATO, while stoutly retaining their neutral status. Throughout the Cold War and the post-Communism era, majorities in both countries opposed joining NATO; however, with the increasing threat of Russia in the second decade of the 21st century, support for joining had begun to climb. As Russia began to build forces on Ukraine's border in the leadup to their invasion, both countries increased their cooperation with NATO. On 25 February, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova threatened Finland and Sweden with "military and political consequences" if they attempted to join NATO, despite their ongoing commitment to neutrality. Both countries had attended the emergency NATO summit as members of NATO's Partnership for Peace and both had condemned the invasion and had provided assistance to Ukraine. The previous day, Prime Minister Sanna Marin commented on Finland's potential membership after the invasion, saying: "It is also now clear that the debate on NATO membership in Finland will change", while noting that a Finnish application to NATO would require widespread political and public support. Shortly after the threat, a plane carrying Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia's State Duma, was denied permission to cross both Swedish and Finnish airspace. A public petition asking the Finnish Parliament to hold a referendum to join NATO reached the required 50,000 signatures, prompting a parliamentary discussion on 1 March 2022. Finnish public opinion on joining NATO shifted after the invasion, with 53% in favor in the most recent poll compared to 30% in January. European Union On 27 February, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced that the EU would ban Russian state-owned media outlets RT and Sputnik in response to disinformation and their coverage of the conflict in Ukraine. She also said that the EU would finance the purchase and delivery of military equipment to Ukraine and proposed a ban on Russian aircraft using EU airspace. On 28 February, President Zelenskyy asked to join the EU under a new fast track procedure. Photographs reported to be of Zelenskyy signing an application for membership were later shared. Other countries and international organisations The Czech Republic, Latvia, and Lithuania stopped issuing visas to Russian citizens. Micronesia severed diplomatic relations with Russia following the invasion. Following its military intervention in protests against the government earlier in January 2022, Russia requested that Kazakhstan send its troops to assist in the offensive, in which Kazakhstan refused, reiterating that it did not recognise the Donetsk and Luhansk separatists. On 1 March, Kazakh president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev commented in regard to the outbreak of the war, saying that Kazakhstan's positions should be based on the "critical need to ensure the security, sovereignty and territorial integrity", calling on both Ukraine and Russia to find "a common language at the negotiating table", and reciting a Russian proverb that "a bad peace is better than a good quarrel". Tokayev noted Kazakhstan's willingness in providing all possible forms of assistance, including mediation services. During his attendance to the UN Human Rights Council session on 28 February, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tleuberdi suggested for Nur-Sultan to host negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian officials, expressing his concern for civilian casualties. In a call with Putin, Xi Jinping, the Chinese paramount leader and general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, said China supported efforts to resolve the dispute through dialogue; Putin stated he was open to holding high-level talks with Ukraine. In a statement released on 25 February, China said that Ukraine's territory and sovereignty should be respected and urged talks between Ukraine and Russia as soon as possible. Shortly after, Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister and state councilor, stated that China had a clear position respecting the territorial integrity and sovereignty of all countries, including Ukraine. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi appealed for an immediate cessation of violence in Ukraine, though he refrained from taking a stand on the issue and did not condemn the Russian invasion. India was reportedly preparing a mechanism to trade with Russia using rupees to avoid the impact of Western sanctions. Serbia was among the few European countries that opposed sanctions on Russia. Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić said that his country supported Ukraine's sovereignty but that he would look after Serbia's own interests. Vučić also stated that he would condemn Russia's recognition of the independence of separatist regions in eastern Ukraine only if Zelenskyy condemned the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia on public television. While there was no agreement on sanctions on Russia, Serbia nevertheless expressed regrets over the events, describing both Russia and Ukraine as friendly states and underlining full support for the territorial integrity of Ukraine. His initial weak response was criticised by multiple commentators in the country and the region, while some local media outlets sided with Russia. The Serbian organization Women in Black organised anti-war demonstrations in Belgrade, and the Serbian Orthodox Church organised a collection of humanitarian aid. Pope Francis expressed his "deepest sorrow" in a phone call to Zelenskyy, who thanked the Pope for his support. The Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, regarded as the primus inter pares (first among equals) in the Eastern Orthodox Church and spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians, called for an end to the war. Bartholomew called the war abominable and voiced solidarity and support with the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow released a statement noting "the suffering of people", calling on all parties "to do everything possible to avoid civilian casualties" while asking the Moscow Patriarchate to pray for "the rapid restoration of peace". Metropolitan Onufriy, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate, said the war had no justification. Tsai Ing-wen, the president of Taiwan, said that Taiwan condemned the infringement of Ukrainian sovereignty and called for peaceful resolution. Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement on 25 February condemning Russia and announcing sanctions. These would likely affect semi-conductors, as Taiwan produces much of the global supply. On 26 February, Vadim Krasnoselski, the president of the unrecognised state of Transnistria, affirmed that Transnistria, as a peaceful state, had no offensive plans, referencing Transnistria's large population of Ukrainians and how Ukrainian language is taught in its schools. Also on 26 February, the Council of Europe suspended Russian participation in the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly. Council Secretary-General Marija Pejčinović Burić called the invasion a "flagrant violation" and stated: "This is a dark hour for Europe and everything it stands for." On 27 February, Belarus held a constitutional referendum which theoretically allowed the country to access nuclear weapons since their renouncement after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The result was likely influenced by President Lukashenko's recent decisions. Entertainment and sporting organisations UEFA, the European governing body for football, decided to relocate the Champions League final from Saint Petersburg to Saint-Denis, France, after a meeting of the body's executive committee. The national football teams of Poland, the Czech Republic and Sweden refused to play any matches with Russia. Formula One called off the Russian Grand Prix for this year in the wake of the crisis, with world champions Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen calling it "wrong" to race in the country. The International Olympic Committee called upon international sporting federations to either move or cancel any sports events planned in Russia or Belarus. It recommended that Belarusian and Russian nationals be allowed to compete only as neutral athletes or teams. The Union Cycliste Internationale and the International Gymnastics Federation were among those to act accordingly. The International Judo Federation suspended President Putin's status as "Honorary President and Ambassador of the International Judo Federation". On 28 February, FIFA, joined by UEFA, suspended Russian teams from playing international football. Further, the National Hockey League announced that is was suspending all Russian business relationships, pausing Russian language websites, and would not host future competitions in Russia. The International Ice Hockey Federation suspended all Russian and Belarusian national and club teams from its competitions and withdrew hosting rights for the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship that were to be held in Russia. Finland-based Jokerit and Latvia-based Dinamo Riga announced separately that the two ice hockey teams would withdraw from Russia's top-tier Kontinental Hockey League. The European Broadcasting Union excluded Russia from participating in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, with the organisers saying that its inclusion could "bring the competition into disrepute". On March 1, the International Skating Union, which governs figure skating worldwide, announced that skaters from both Russia and Belarus would be barred from all competitions effective immediately until further notice. Disney, Warner Bros, and Sony Pictures announced to pause all their theatrical releases in Russia, citing the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine caused by Moscow. Poland-based beauty contest Miss Supranational announced on social media that it would not accept a contestant from Russia because they "cannot condone the actions of the Kremlin". Technology companies and hackers On 25 February, the hacking collective Anonymous conducted DDoS attacks on the RT website, as well as on the website of the Russian Ministry of Defence. On 27 February, Google temporarily disabled traffic conditions on Google Maps to protect civilians and military operations in the conflict zone. Protests In Russia Almost 2,000 Russians in 60 cities across Russia were detained by police on 24 February for protesting against the invasion, according to OVD-Info; by 27 February, it reported that more than 5,900 protestors had been detained overall. Russia's interior ministry justified these arrests due to the "coronavirus restrictions, including on public events" that continue to be in place. Russian authorities warned Russians of legal repercussions for joining anti-war protests. Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov announced that the Novaya Gazeta newspaper would publish its next edition in both Ukrainian and Russian. Muratov, journalist Mikhail Zygar, director Vladimir Mirzoyev, and others signed a document stating that Ukraine was not a threat to Russia and calling for Russian citizens to denounce the war. Elena Chernenko, a journalist at Kommersant, circulated a critical open letter signed by 170 journalists and academics. Mikhail Fridman, one of Russian oligarchs, said that the war would "damage two nations who have been brothers for hundreds of years" and called for the "bloodshed to end". Three Communist members of parliament, who had supported the resolution recognizing the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics believing it was a peacekeeping mission and not a full-scale invasion, were the sole members of the State Duma to speak out against the war. State Duma deputy Mikhail Matveev voted in favour of the recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics but later condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. State Duma deputy Oleg Smolin said he was "shocked" by the invasion. More than 30,000 technology workers, 6,000 medical workers, 3,400 architects, more than 4,300 teachers, and 2,000 actors, directors, and other creative figures signed petitions calling for Putin's government to stop the war. Russian human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov started a petition to protest the invasion, garnering more than 750,000 signatures by 26 February. The founders of the Immortal Regiment commemoration movement, in which ordinary Russians annually march with photographs of veteran family members to mark World War II's Victory Day on 9 May, called on Putin to cease fire, describing the use of force as inhuman. Outside Russia Protests in support of Ukraine have broken out in cities worldwide. In the Czech Republic, some 80,000 people protested in Wenceslas Square in Prague. On 27 February, more than 100,000 gathered in Berlin to protest against Russia's invasion. During a constitutional referendum vote, Belarusian protestors in Minsk chanted "No to War" at polling stations. On 28 February, instead of the traditional Cologne Carnival parade , which had been cancelled due to COVID-19 a few days earlier, more than 250,000, instead of the anticipated 30,000, gathered in Cologne in a peace march to protest against the Russian invasion. A boycott movement against Russian and Belarusian products has spread, most notably in the Baltic states. In Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia most supermarkets removed Russian and Belarusian products, such as food, drinks, magazines, and newspapers, with Coop, Rimi, Maxima, and Barbora being the most notable supermarket chains to join the boycott. In Canada, the liquor control boards of several provinces, including the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, the Société des alcools du Québec, the Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation, the Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries Corporation, and the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation, were ordered to remove Russian alcohol products from retail stores. In Canada, the government of British Columbia ceased the import of Russian liquor products, and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario announced the removal of Russian liquor from all 679 liquor retailers within its jurisdiction. In the US, politicians in Ohio, New Hampshire, and Utah placed legal restrictions on the sale of Russian liquor, and many bars, restaurants, and liquor retailers have removed Russian brands from their selections voluntarily, with some supporting Ukrainian liquors in a further show of solidarity with Ukraine. Following protests, both the Finnish and Swedish alcohol monopolies, Alko and Systembolaget, stopped the sale of Russian alcoholic beverages. In addition, Finland's two main retailers, S-Group and Kesko, removed Russian goods from their shelves. See also Military history of the Russian Federation Explanatory notes References External links Part of Putin's national address pre-invasion. Comments archived at archive.today. Video archived at ghostarchive.org. Russia invades Ukraine Live Update. CNN. Ukraine live updates. BBC News. 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