Pierluigi Paganini January 20, 2020

The Chairman of the NATO Military Committee announced that the alliance has sent a counter-hybrid team to Montenegro to face Russian hybrid attacks.

Last week in Brussels, the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee (MC), Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, announced the effort of the Alliance in facing Russian hybrid attacks.

The term “Hybrid warfare” refers to a military strategy which employs political warfare and blends conventional warfare, irregular warfare and cyberwarfare with other influencing methods, such as fake news, diplomacy, lawfare and foreign electoral intervention.

Peach said that the NATO alliance had set up the first NATO counter-hybrid team in Montenegro.

“The first NATO counter-hybrid team has been deployed to our ally state, Montenegro, with the aim of helping to strengthen Montenegro’s capacities and deterring hybrid challenges”, Peach said.

Several countries, especially Russia, continue their aggressive operations against foreign states, and cyber warfare is becoming the main concern for almost any government.

The official explained that since 2014 the defence spending to face hybrid threats has continued to increase, it has been estimated that by 2024 that amount will reach $ 400 billion.

“NATO data shows a 4,6% increase in 2019. That is the fifth consecutive year of growth. By the end of this year, allies will have invested over $130 billion”, added Marshal Peach

United States Army General Mark Milley, the highest military officer and military adviser to the President, Minister of Defence and U.S. National Security Council, accused the Russian Government of attempting to destabilize the members of the alliance and divide it.

“it is evident that Russia has been trying to divide NATO and make it weaker”. General Milley said.

“It would be their benefit. It would be detrimental to Europe and the US if NATO just collapsed and disintegrated.”

Representatives of Montenegro’s Defence Ministry confirmed that NATO counter-hybrid team visited Montenegro in November. Experts fear that Russia could attempt to influence the forthcoming parliamentary elections that will take place in October 2020.

“This visit was the first such engagement in one of the allies, and it was an important experience for Montenegro. Montenegro wants to enhance its capacities and the focus of NATO’s team was on strengthening legislative framework in this domain and its implementation”, said Ivica Ivanović, director general for defence policy.

On June 5, 2017 Montenegro officially joined NATO alliance despite the strong opposition from the Russian Government that threatened to retaliate.

Cybersecurity experts believe that a new wave of attacks from the cyberspace will hit the state. In February 2017, for the second time in a few months, Montenegro suffered massive and prolonged cyberattacks against government and media websites.

Researchers at security firm FireEye who analyzed the attacks observed malware and exploits associated with the notorious Russia-linked APT group known as APT28 (aka Fancy Bear, Pawn Storm, Strontium, Sofacy, Sednit, and Tsar Team).

Another massive attack hit the country’s institutions during October 2016 elections, amid speculation that the Russian Government was involved.

Hackers targeted Montenegro with spear-phishing attacks, the malicious messages used weaponized documents pertaining to a NATO secretary meeting and a visit by a European army unit to Montenegro.

At the time, the cyberspies delivered the GAMEFISH backdoor (aka Sednit, Seduploader, JHUHUGIT, and Sofacy), a malware that was used only by the APT28 group in past attacks.

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Montenegro, elections)

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