Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), has said the alliance is gravely infuriated by the spate of ransomware cyber attacks that has rocked the globe.
The NATO scribe said this at a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday, and insisted the Organization will not hesitate to take action by activating Article 5.
Ukraine was hit the most by Petya — the latest global cyber attack –that is believed to have been designed to cause chaos rather than extort money, with Ukrainian officials fingering Russia.
Russia has been alleged to be fighting an undeclared war with Ukraine in the east of the country and has been blamed for previous cyber attacks on Kiev, The Telegraph reported.
Stoltenberg said NATO is providing help to Ukraine, and that the alliance will continue to do so, so that the country can bolster its cyber defence systems.
“The attack in May and this week just underlines the importance of strengthening our cyber defences and that is what we are doing,” The Telegraph reports Stoltenberg as saying.
“NATO helps Ukraine with cyber defence and has established a trust fund to finance programs to help Ukraine improve its cyber defences.
“We will continue to do this and it is an important part of our cooperation,” the NATO scribe further stated.
Stoltenberg said the North Atlantic Alliance had defined cyber defence as a NATO domain on a par with land, air, and sea operations, and would see similar planning and funding as a result, and that alliance members agreed last year that a cyber attack could trigger Article 5 of the north Atlantic treaty in the same way as a conventional military assault.
The NATO scribe said further attacks on member countries could force the activation the alliance mutual defence clause.
TheNewsGuru reports NATO invoked Article 5 for the first time in its history after the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States.
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