Assessing Network Operator Actions to Enhance Digital Sovereignty and Strengthen Network Resilience: A Longitudinal Analysis during the Russia-Ukraine Conflict

TL;DR

This study analyzes how the Russia-Ukraine conflict influenced network infrastructure and operator actions to enhance digital sovereignty and resilience, revealing proactive adjustments in DNS and hosting strategies during the conflict.

Contribution

It provides a longitudinal analysis of network infrastructure changes during a conflict, highlighting proactive measures for sovereignty and resilience not previously documented.

Findings

Changes in physical locations of network infrastructure post-conflict onset

Increased use of managed DNS services during the conflict

Domains from different countries showed varied hosting location preferences

Abstract

We conduct longitudinal and temporal analyses on active DNS measurement data to investigate how the Russia-Ukraine conflict impacted the network infrastructures supporting domain names under ICANN's CZDS new gTLDs. Our findings revealed changes in the physical locations of network infrastructures, utilization of managed DNS services, infrastructure redundancy, and distribution, which started right after the first reported Russian military movements in February 2022. We also found that domains from different countries had varying location preferences when moving their hosting infrastructure. These observed changes suggest that network operators took proactive measures in anticipation of an armed conflict to promote resilience and protect the sovereignty of their networks in response to the conflict.