NATO Deputy SecGen Geoana: Cybersecurity, part of new type of war

Cybersecurity is part of the new type of war, the Deputy Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance, Mircea Geoana, had an intervention on Tuesday via video link at a conference titled "Building Blocks of Global Digitalisation: creating trust, deterrence & policy coordination through cyber diplomacy".

"Besides disinformation and digital espionage, cybersecurity is part of a new type of war. On the day of the invasion [of Ukraine] by Russia, there were large-scale cyberattacks on the government, army and critical infrastructure. The continuous use of these attacks aims at interrupting or stopping the cyberdefence system of Ukraine," he said.

In this context, the NATO Deputy Secretary General deemed the consolidation of cybersecurity as "essential to increasing the resilience of our societies and for the security of our people, in peace time, in moments of crisis and in moments of conflict."

"It's a crucial aspect for the defence and deterrence roles, that is why it is a priority of the current NATO agenda," Geoana emphasized.

He also spoke of the allied support that Ukraine is receiving in this domain.

"NATO experts in Brussels frequently exchange information with their Ukrainian counterparts and are offering assistance," Mircea Geoana said.

The NATO Deputy Secretary General drew attention that Georgia and Bosnia-Herzegovina "present the risk of being targets of Russian aggression." "So we are supplementing our adapted support, both from a political point of view, as well as a practical one, in order to consolidate resilience and stop other aggressions, including in the cyber domain," he said. AGERPRES