NATO strongly condemned Russia’s cyber activities that threaten the security of its member states.
On Friday, July 18, the Alliance expressed solidarity with Estonia, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and the Czech Republic, which had previously publicly accused the Russian GRU intelligence agency and its hacker group APT 28 of attacks against NATO members, Ukraine, and other countries.
The statement stressed that these attacks were not only directed at government institutions but also at operators of critical infrastructure in Allied countries, including Romania.
NATO considers such actions part of a broader hybrid campaign by the Kremlin to destabilize allies and support Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine.
“These attributions and the continuous targeting of our critical infrastructure, with the harmful impacts caused across several sectors, illustrate the extent to which cyber and wider hybrid threats have become important tools in Russia’s ongoing campaign to destabilise NATO Allies and in Russia’s brutal and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine,” the statement said.
The Alliance called on Russia to immediately cease cyberattacks and hybrid actions, stressing that Moscow was ignoring international rules of responsible behavior in cyberspace, to which it itself had committed itself.
NATO assured that its support for Ukraine—including cyber assistance within the framework of the Tallinn Mechanism—would continue.
The Alliance also stressed that it was ready to use the full range of capabilities to protect against cyber threats and would respond to them in a manner and at a time determined by international law and together with partners, including the European Union.
On the same day, the United Kingdom reported the exposure of a Russian military intelligence operation involving the use of sophisticated malicious software for cyber espionage.
On July 16, it was reported that law enforcement agencies from more than ten European countries, as well as Canada and the United States, had carried out a joint operation against a large-scale network of pro-Russian hackers, NoName057.
