NATO fears new serious acts of sabotage and cyber attacks on alliance territory, a senior official said on the sidelines of a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels.
The official said that Russia in particular appears to be becoming more willing to hurt or endanger lives through sabotage in NATO member countries.
China, Iran and North Korea are also active in cyber attacks, according to the official. Beijing, like Moscow, is conducting an ongoing campaign to spread malware, the official said.
The aim is to carry out espionage, but also to have the ability to cause disruption in the event of rising tensions.
Russia is focusing on critical infrastructure and in particular on industrial control systems, the official said.
The official cited as an example a major attack – probably carried out by Iran – on NATO member Albania, which paralyzed its border control system. Interior Ministry files were also published online.
The official explained that everything was made public following the attack, including police files, email exchanges between officers, secret witnesses and Interpol files.