NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told German publication Die Welt on Thursday that the alliance is receiving an increasing number of state-sponsored cyber attacks.
He said that in NATO’s most recent evaluations there was a monthly average of 500 threatening cyber attacks against NATO infrastructure requiring intensive intervention by experts.
“That’s an increase of 60 percent compared to 2015. Most of these attacks did not stem from private individuals but were sponsored by national institutions of other countries,” he said.
He highlighted that NATO needs to increase its cyber defenses. “We must boost our capabilities in this area,” because the attackers may “damage the defence readiness of NATO and hinder the work of our armed troops.”
Because all military activities are based on data transmission, if it fails then it can cause “serious damage.” With the increasing threat cyber defense will play an important role in the next NATO summit, Stoltenberg said.
He is also concerned about data manipulations in upcoming election campaigns, similar to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee in the United States election campaign. NATO is receiving reports from various member state governments “who are concerned that hackers will try to interfere in national election campaigns, undermining democracy.”
The Secretary General also rejected recent statements by President-elect Donald Trump that NATO is not fighting terrorism and is “obsolete.”
“NATO is already strongly engaged in the fight against international terrorism, and we are discussing how this engagement can be broadened,” he said.
However, Stoltenberg said he was looking forward to working with Trump and is confident the U.S. would continue to be fully committed to its security guarantees for NATO.