POLITICO: NATO prepares for cyber war

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 cyber war.

It’s a scenario that has become all too real for NATO member states and their allies since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, POLITICO reports.

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.

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 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.

“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.