NATO is beefing up its cyber defense capabilities in the face of growing Russian aggression, the organization’s secretary general said on May 27.
“NATO stands ready to protect and defend all allies against any threat,” including in cyberspace, said Jens Stoltenberg at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He restated NATO’s policy that a cyber attack could trigger Article 5, which commits members to consider an attack against one state as an attack against all. “We regard cyber as potentially as dangerous as a conventional impact,” he added.
The organization is developing teams of cyber specialists who —like its conventional forces— are conducting wargames regularly to boost readiness. While the priority is to defend NATO networks, it is also helping allies grow their own cyber capabilities, he said.
Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and destabilization of Ukraine have brought back armed conflict to Europe at the cost of 6,000 lives, Stoltenberg said. “There are continuous ceasefire violations, and heavy fighting could flare up at any moment.”
Even before its takeover of Crimea, Russia has impeded the territory of its neighbors, he said. Since the Russia-Georgia war in 2008, Russia has taken almost full control of two Georgian regions and erected fences separating them from the rest of Georgia. It has also sent troops into Moldova.
Russia is conducting military exercises in ways that undermine transparency, he said. It has used wargames to mask troops on the border of Ukraine who are then sent in the country to support separatists. The country has also placed a nuclear-capable missile system in Kaliningrad, near its borders with Lithuania and Poland, he said.
“These are not random events. They form a bigger picture which is of great concern. Russia is a global actor that is asserting its military power, stirring up aggressive nationalism, claiming the right to impose its will on its neighbors and grabbing land,” Stoltenberg said.
NATO is responding to these acts in several ways, he said. Besides hardening cyber defenses, the organization is improving how it deals with hybrid threats, speeding up decision-making and deepening intelligence-sharing. It is also analyzing signals from Russia, including its nuclear activities.
The organization is working with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine to help them carry out reforms and build stronger institutions, he said.
“If our neighbors are more stable, we are more secure,” he said.
He commended members of the U.S. military serving with NATO forces. “Their presence sends a clear signal: America stands with Europe,” he said.
Stoltenberg’s speech was his first public address in the United States as NATO’s secretary general. On May 26, he met with President Barack Obama, after which the pair reiterated their support for Ukrainian sovereignty and urged Ukraine and Russia to implement the Minsk Agreements.