Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

NATO prepares for cyber war

NATO prepares for cyber war

More than 1,000 cyber professionals in NATO members and its allies across the globe participated in an exercise this week to test and strengthen cyber defenses.
Some 150 NATO cybersecurity experts assembled in an unimposing beige building in the heart of Estonia’s snow-covered capital this week to prepare for a cyberwar.

It’s a scenario that has become all too real for NATO member states and their allies since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The conflict has forced Ukraine to defend against both missile attacks and constant efforts by Russian hackers intent on turning off the lights and making life more difficult for their besieged neighbors.

“There is a level of seriousness added; it’s not anymore so fictitious. It has become quite obvious those things are happening in reality,” Col. Bernd Hansen, branch head for Cyberspace at NATO Allied Command Transformation, said of the impact of the conflict in Ukraine.

NATO’s cyber forces have been watching the war in Ukraine closely, both to find ways to help Ukraine and to figure out how to make it harder for Russia and other adversaries to hack into infrastructure in NATO member states and their allies.

The conflict has added urgency to NATO’s annual Cyber Coalition exercise, in which more than 40 member states, allies and other organizations work together to respond to, and recover from, simulated cyberattacks on critical infrastructures like power grids and ships. The exercise spanned the globe, with nearly 1,000 cyber professionals participating remotely from their home countries.

The world has never experienced an all-out cyberwar in which cyberattacks are used to the same devastating effect as physical strikes — such as shutting off critical services like power and water and preventing their restoration. The situation in Ukraine, however, is teetering on the brink.

And NATO has been intentionally ambiguous about what level of cyberattack it would take for members to respond with either force or devastating cyber strikes of their own.

This year, cybersecurity officials and technical experts came to Tallinn from Europe, the United States and as far away as Japan to respond to cyberattacks against the fictional island of Icebergen, located somewhere between Iceland and Norway. On Nov. 28, hackers launched a digital assault on the fictional island in an attempt to steal intelligence and intellectual property, disrupt government services, and bring down the power grid.
The U.S. led air command and control in

the exercise, while Romania led on developing the storyline, the United Kingdom took control on the ground, and Poland was in charge of special operations forces.

The results were a closely guarded secret by NATO officials due to security and intelligence concerns, but U.S. Navy Col. Charles Elliott, the director of the exercise, told reporters that no one failed the exercise. He declined to give more specifics about what weaknesses were found.

Almost 150 personnel were on-site for the event, double the amount who made the journey last year. U.S. Cyber Command and U.S. European Command had about 50 people participating in person or remotely.

Elliott said that “it’s certainly possible” that the conflict in Ukraine had something to do with the spike in attendees, but declined to attribute it directly to that. While Ukraine has participated in previous years, it didn’t this year because officials there are too busy defending their networks from a barrage of Russian attacks — including on major power substations.

The war in Ukraine has injected new urgency into questions about how NATO would respond to a cyberattack on a member state large enough to invoke Article 5, which labels an attack against any member state as an attack against all. The government of Albania considered requesting its use earlier this year following a widespread attack on the country’s networks by Iran.

Complicating matters further is how vulnerable critical networks in NATO states are to cyberattacks. Those can run from sophisticated operations to plant malware on software updates to more common ransomware attacks — in which hackers trick a user into clicking on a link and then shut down a network to extract a payment. In a sign of how increasingly intertwined cyberstrikes are becoming with traditional warfare, Russia has coordinated missile strikes in Ukraine with cyberattacks to intensify the misery of civilians on the ground.

The difficulty of keeping hackers out makes it even more important to practice how to respond once they’ve infiltrated networks, officials say.

“Cyber generally still is an area that I judge favors the attacker more than the defender, and I hope we are able to change the dynamic, but we’re not quite there yet,” David Cattler, NATO assistant secretary general for Intelligence and Security, told reporters in a briefing during the exercise.

Officials said they incorporated scenarios and lessons from the cyber attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure this year, including on power grids.

“It has made it much more live, it’s reality,” Maj. Tobias Malm, from Swedish Armed Forces headquarters, said of the war in Ukraine. “It’s the real world, you sit in the middle of it, and it’s a daily struggle to address these issues.”

The exercise was held at NATO’s Cyber Range, a building designed and opened in 2021 to serve as a center to train NATO cybersecurity experts on how to coordinate and respond to attacks like those faced on the ground in Ukraine. The building gives cyber professionals a secure location with self-contained computer networks that can simulate cyber doomsdays. The building has both unclassified and classified spaces, and rarely opens its doors to the press in an effort to keep operations secure. Participants were banned from bringing any personal devices into the simulation area.

“They are constantly building up and tearing down these networks, so essentially this entire building is a blank slate; you can reconfigure it however you like,” Elliott said.

Part of the exercise incorporated experimentation of new technologies, including adapting the use of artificial intelligence technologies to help counter cyber threats.

“NATO’s committed to maintaining its technological edge,” David van Weel, NATO’s assistant secretary general for emerging security challenges, told reporters during a virtual briefing on Friday.

The intensified pressure on cyber professionals within NATO countries and allied nations has made the ability to coordinate and test communication protocols all the more essential. Finland, alongside Sweden, is currently being considered for NATO membership, but has long been a strong cyber partner to NATO, and both were included in the exercise.

Maj. Markus Riihoven, a member of the Finnish Defense Forces, said that the exercise was essential to develop a “network of trust” that can easily be called upon during a real-world cyberattack.

To build trust, participants mingled during frequent coffee breaks and catered lunches in a fairly relaxed environment outside the rooms where the exercise continued. They were kept on track by announcements from leadership about the schedule accompanied by songs including, at the conclusion of the exercise, ABBA’s “Waterloo’’ pumped over the loudspeakers.

Hovering over the camaraderie, however, was an awareness that this trial run could very quickly become a real-world scenario. Not to mention the looming question of whether military defense alone will ever be enough to fend off a large-scale cyberattack.

NATO’s Bernd said they need to move beyond government and the military to fight back against cyberattacks — a reference to the role the private sector might have to play in getting systems back online.

“What this exercise showed,” he said, “is that enlarging the cyber family that is tackling cyberattacks beyond the military framework — that is something that we need to train on how to collaborate.”
AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Western Europe Records Hottest June on Record
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
France Requests Airlines to Cut Flights at Paris Airports Amid Planned Air Traffic Controller Strike
Poland Implements Border Checks Amid Growing Migration Tensions
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
Amazon Reaches Milestone with Deployment of One Millionth Robot
Yulia Putintseva Calls for Spectator Ejection at Wimbledon Over Safety Concerns
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
Amazon Reaches Major Automation Milestone with Over One Million Robots
Extreme Heat Wave Sweeps Across Europe, Hitting Record Temperatures
Meta Announces Formation of Ambitious AI Unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs
Robots Compete in Football Tournament in China Amid Injuries
China Unveils Miniature Insect-Like Surveillance Drone
Marc Marquez Claims Victory at Dutch Grand Prix Amidst Family Misfortune
Germany Votes to Suspend Family Reunification for Asylum Seekers
Budapest Pride Parade Draws 200,000 Participants Amid Government Ban
Southern Europe Experiences Extreme Heat
Xiaomi's YU7 SUV Launch Garners Record Pre-Orders Amid Market Challenges
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's Lavish Wedding in Venice
Russia Launches Largest Air Assault on Ukraine Since Invasion
Massive Anti-Government Protests Erupt in Belgrade
Iran Executes Alleged Israeli Spies and Arrests Hundreds Amid Post-War Crackdown
Hungary's Prime Minister Criticizes NATO's Role in Ukraine
EU TO HUNGARY: LET THEM PRIDE OR PREP FOR SHADE. ORBÁN TO EU: STAY IN YOUR LANE AND FIX YOUR OWN MESS.
Hungarian Scientist to Conduct 30 Research Experiments on the International Space Station
NATO Members Agree to 5% Defense Spending Target by 2035
NATO Leaders Endorse Plan for Increased Defence Spending
U.S. Crude Oil Prices Drop Below $65 Amid Market Volatility
International Astronaut Team Launched to Space Station
Macron and Merz: Europe must arm itself in an unstable world
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
Iran Intensifies Crackdown on Alleged Mossad Operatives After Sabotage Claims
Trump Praises Iran’s ‘Very Weak’ Response After U.S. Strikes and Presses Israel to Pursue Peace
Oil Prices Set to Surge After US Strikes Iran
BA and Singapore Airlines Cancel Dubai Flights Amid Middle East Tensions
Trump Faces Backlash from MAGA Base Over Iran Strikes
Meta Bets $14 B on Alexandr Wang to Drive AI Ambitions
FedEx Founder Fred Smith, ‘Heart and Soul’ of the Company, Dies at 80
Chinese Factories Shift Away from U.S. Amid Trump‑Era Tariffs
Pimco Seizes Opportunity in Japan’s Dislocated Bond Market
Labubu Doll Drives Pop Mart to Status as China’s Most Valuable Toy Maker
Global Coal Demand Defies Paris Accord Goals
United States Conducts Precision Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites
US strikes Iran nuclear sites, Trump says
Telegram Founder: I Will Leave My Fortune to Over 100 of My Children
16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked in Unprecedented Cybersecurity Breach
Senate hearing on who was 'really running' Biden White House kicks off
Hungary Ranked Among the World’s Safest Travel Destinations for 2025
×