Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Cyberwarfare

NATO Unprepared for Russian Attack: UK Lawmakers

“Events in Ukraine this year, following on from the cyber attack on Estonia in 2007 and the invasion of Georgia by Russia in 2008, are a ‘wake-up call’ for NATO.”

“Events in Ukraine this year, following on from the cyber attack on Estonia in 2007 and the invasion of Georgia by Russia in 2008, are a ‘wake-up call’ for NATO.”

LONDON – NATO is not ready to deal with a military attack by Russia on a member state and must adjust to the unconventional tactics seen in Ukraine, British lawmakers warned Thursday.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine was a “wake-up call” for the 28-nation alliance, which had become complacent, Britain’s parliamentary defence committee said in a report.

It said NATO had failed to adapt to Moscow’s increasing use of “ambigous warfare”, such as cyber attacks and local militias backed by Russian special forces.

The report also urged the alliance to station troops permanently in Baltic member nations Estonia, Latvia and

Lithuania, saying they were particularly vulnerable.

“The risk of attack by Russia on a NATO member state, whilst still small, is significant. We are not convinced that NATO is ready for this threat,” said committee chairman Rory Stewart.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

“NATO has been too complacent about the threat from Russia, and it is not well-prepared,” added Stewart, a former soldier and diplomat in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans.

NATO — which is due to hold a summit in Wales in September — said it would study the report. The warning comes after the EU and US imposed their toughest sanctions on Russia since the Cold War, accusing Moscow of failing to defuse the conflict in eastern Ukraine and failing to help with access to the site of downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

Western nations say Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s troubled east likely shot down the plane with a missile.

‘Ambigous warfare’

The British report said NATO was “currently not well-prepared for a Russian threat against a NATO member state”.

“A Russian unconventional attack, using asymmetric tactics — the latest term for this is ‘ambiguous warfare’ — designed to slip below NATO’s response threshold, would be particularly difficult to counter.

“Events in Ukraine this year, following on from the cyber attack on Estonia in 2007 and the invasion of Georgia by Russia in 2008, are a ‘wake-up call’ for NATO. They have revealed alarming deficiencies in the state of NATO preparedness, which will be tough to fix.”

The report recommended that the use of cyber-attacks and irregular militias should be included under NATO’s founding principle, Article 5, under which all members are bound to aid any member which is attacked. The British government should use the September NATO summit to drive changes to deal with a threat from Russia, the committee added.

“The NATO alliance has not considered Russia as an adversary or a potential territorial threat to its member states for 20 years,” said the report. “It is now forced to do so as a result of Russia’s recent actions.”

Stewart said the transatlantic alliance had to expand from its current focus on terror and failed states to deal with a Russian threat using a different set of tactics to the Cold War.

“The instability in Russia, president Putin’s world-view, and the failure of the West to respond actively in Ukraine means that we now have to address urgently the possibility — however small — of Russia repeating such tactics elsewhere.”

NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said the alliance would discuss a plan of action for Russia at the September summit.

“We have not seen the report by the UK Defence Select Committee but we’ll study it carefully once it’s published,” she said.

“NATO has already taken measures to reinforce collective defence, especially for our Eastern allies, with more planes in the air, more ships at sea, and more exercises on the ground.”

Written By

AFP 2023

Click to comment

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

SecurityWeek’s Threat Detection and Incident Response Summit brings together security practitioners from around the world to share war stories on breaches, APT attacks and threat intelligence.

Register

Securityweek’s CISO Forum will address issues and challenges that are top of mind for today’s security leaders and what the future looks like as chief defenders of the enterprise.

Register

Expert Insights

Related Content

Cyberwarfare

WASHINGTON - Cyberattacks are the most serious threat facing the United States, even more so than terrorism, according to American defense experts. Almost half...

Cyberwarfare

Websites of German airports, administration bodies and banks were hit by DDoS attacks attributed to Russian hacker group Killnet

Cyberwarfare

The war in Ukraine is the first major conflagration between two technologically advanced powers in the age of cyber. It prompts us to question...

Application Security

Fortinet on Monday issued an emergency patch to cover a severe vulnerability in its FortiOS SSL-VPN product, warning that hackers have already exploited the...

Cyberwarfare

Iranian APT Moses Staff is leaking data stolen from Saudi Arabia government ministries under the recently created Abraham's Ax persona

Application Security

Virtualization technology giant VMware on Tuesday shipped urgent updates to fix a trio of security problems in multiple software products, including a virtual machine...

Cyberwarfare

Russia-linked cyberespionage group APT29 has been observed using embassy-themed lures and the GraphicalNeutrino malware in recent attacks.

Cyberwarfare

ENISA and CERT-EU warn of Chinese threat actors targeting businesses and government organizations in the European Union.