European Union defence ministers will hold a cyber war game for the first time to test their ability to respond to a potential attack by computer hackers on one of the bloc's military missions abroad.
In a fictional scenario, the EU's naval mission in the Mediterranean will be sabotaged by hackers who cripple the mission's command on land and launch a campaign on social media to discredit the EU operations and provoke protests.
Each of the EU's defence ministers will try to contain the crisis during the 90-minute, closed-door exercise in Tallinn that officials have sought to make real by creating mock news videos giving updates on an escalating situation.
"We want to show ministers the impact of cyber campaigns," said Tanel Sepp, deputy director for cyber planning at Estonia's defence ministry.
After a series of global cyber attacks disrupted multinational firms, ports and public services on an unprecedented scale this year, governments are seeking to stop hackers from shutting down more critical infrastructure or crippling corporate and government networks.
Especially concerned about Russia since it seized Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, Estonia has put cyber security at the forefront of its six-month EU presidency and proposed the exercise for defence ministers.
Share
