Russia which faced sharp criticism for launching cyberattacks on western nations till date has now received a stern warning from NATO. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization says that it will be ready to use all means at its disposal to react to cyber attacks and the warning goes to all adversaries of the UK including Russia.
Jens Stoltenberg, the head of NATO issued the warning in the wake of European Parliament Elections which kicked off on Thursday in Britain and Netherlands.
Citing the instance where Russia tried to interfere in 2016 US Presidential Elections and used cyberattacks to infiltrate into the national infrastructure of Ukraine, Stoltenberg said that his nation isn’t going to tolerate this anymore.
“For deterrence to go full throttle, we will use all means to respond to cyber attacks taking place in cyberspace”, said Jens Stoltenberg at a press conference in London which was also attended by UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
Speaking on the occasion, Hunt stated that GCHQ and related cyber wing NCSC have shared details of malicious Russian activity with 16 nations from a total of 29 NATO in the past 18 months.
Note 1- Russian intelligence used proxies in 2014 general elections of Ukraine which later led to the ouster of a Ukraine leader backed by Moscow.
Note 2- In the 2016 Warsaw Summit, NATO pledged that it will strengthen its national cyber defense. At the same time, the Inter-governmental alliance also pledged to hold Cyber Defense Pledge Conference on an annual note.
