Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt says Ukraine proves value of IT in war
- Elon Musk’s donation of access to his Starlink satellite-based broadband system effectively insulated both the public and Ukrainian military from a Russian assault
- A function called E-Enemy was added to a popular app used for government services, allowing people to report damage from shelling or Russian troop sightings
Ukraine has been a very effective proving ground for the use of contemporary information technology in war, from satellite dishes to smartphone apps, Eric Schmidt, the former Google chief executive, said Monday.
Schmidt, now a US government consultant on artificial intelligence, told reporters after a 36-hour visit to the country that the civilian tech sector has been crucial to Kyiv’s defence.
The proof came the day after Russian troops invaded on February 24.
After a long stall, Ukraine’s legislature came together to agree on a crucial step to protect all the government’s data from Russian hackers and strikes.
“In one day, they had a meeting of the parliament and changed that law … they moved all their data from government servers in Kyiv to the cloud,” Schmidt said.