EC to Boost Military Cyberdefense in the Face of Growing Aggression

Europe is upping its game on cyberdefense, European Commission officials said at a Thursday briefing. Cyberspace is "increasingly contested and the number of cyber-attacks against the EU and its Member States continues to grow," an EC Q&A noted. Russia's attack on the KA-SAT satellite network, which disrupted communications for several public authorities and Ukrainian armed forces, shows how much civilian and defense players rely on the same critical infrastructure, it said. The European security and defense package encompasses a cyberdefense policy and a plan for free movement of military forces by cutting bureaucracy and ensuring up-to-date infrastructure and digitalized procedures, said Margrethe Vestager, EC executive vice president-Europe Fit for the Digital Age. One common thread for both is the need for better cooperation between military and civilian actors, said EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Josep Borrell. The plan intends to, among other things, create an EU cyberdefense coordination center and a network of military computer emergency and response teams akin to civilian ones, and to address gaps in the cyberdefense workforce, he said. Bad actors can also do damage through 5G networks, Vestager said. Nearly three years after the EC adopted a 5G toolbox to keep networks secure, some EU countries haven't done so, she said: Those that haven't imposed restrictions on high-risk suppliers must act quickly. Asked how vulnerable Europe is to cyberattacks, Vestager noted worrying incidents around Europe, including assaults on Danish and German railroads and on the Nord Stream pipelines, not to mention the attack on Ukraine: "It is piling up." The defense and military mobility package is part, but not all, of the answer, she said.