NATO announces measures to counter Russian and Chinese hybrid attacks

NATO has agreed on a series of defensive measures to counter hostile acts by Russia and China and destabilize and divide the alliance, Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday.

The alliance agreed to share more intelligence, improve cyber defenses, boost protection of critical infrastructure and “take tougher action against Russia’s shadow fleet of oil-exporting ships,” Rutte said.

NATO foreign ministers were at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels for a two-day meeting, with talks Wednesday focusing on Russian and Chinese hybrid attacks.

Hybrid attacks are a general security term that encompasses actions that state and non-state actors use to harm other countries without waging open war.

As a rule, they are difficult or impossible to attribute to a specific perpetrator.

NATO’s secretary general said Russia and China are using sabotage, cybercrime and other hybrid attacks such as “energy blackmail” against the alliance.

NATO has “seen a sharp increase” in hybrid attacks, Rutte said, stressing that the alliance agreed that perpetrators must be held accountable.

Before the start of the talks, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský said there were 500 suspicious incidents in Europe in 2024 and almost 100 of them could be attributed to Russia.

NATO must send a strong message to Moscow that such activities will not be tolerated, Lipavský said. “It’s very dangerous,” he emphasized.

A senior NATO official said on the sidelines of the foreign ministers’ meeting that the alliance fears further serious acts of sabotage and cyber attacks on its territory.

The official said Russia in particular appears increasingly willing to hurt or endanger lives through sabotage in NATO member states.

China, Iran and North Korea are also active in cyber attacks, according to the official. Beijing, like Moscow, is waging an ongoing campaign to spread malware, the official added.

The aim is to commit espionage, but also to cause disruption when tensions rise.

Russia is focusing on critical infrastructure and in particular industrial control systems, the official said.

The official cited as an example a major attack – likely carried out by Iran – on NATO member Albania, which paralyzed the border control system.

The Interior Ministry’s files were also published online, the official explained, including police documents, email exchanges between officers, secret witnesses and Interpol files.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called on NATO to step up protection of critical infrastructure such as maritime cables and pipelines through intelligence sharing and increased patrols.

Before the start of the meeting, Baerbock highlighted the Baltic Sea as a priority area where NATO monitoring and cooperation efforts should be increased.

The German Foreign Minister also cited the disruption of global positioning signals (GPS) as another example of Russian hybrid activity.