Cyberattack could trigger Article 5 response, NATO deputy secretary warns

Sept. 28 (UPI) -- NATO is adapting to security threats in cyberspace despite vulnerabilities exploited in the COVID-19 pandemic, Deputy Secretary Mircea Geoana said on Monday.

He noted that NATO will establish a Cyberspace Operations Center as a part of its command structure, adding that a military cyber attack on a country qualifies as a cause for all NATO nations to come to its aid.

"We agreed that a cyberattack could trigger Article 5 of our founding treaty, where an attack against one ally is treated as an attack against all," Geoana told a virtual conference of CYBERSEC, an annual public policy conference sponsored by the Kosciusko Institute of Krakow, Poland.

The collective defense statute in the NATO charter is generally interpreted as recognition of an armed attack on a NATO member, leading to all members' involvement in its defense.

Geoana noted an increase in malicious cyber-activities since the start of the pandemic, and advised a continuation among NATO nations to better protect infrastructure.

The three-day conference, founded in 2015, is dedicated to strategic security aspects of global technology, and will feature addresses from a number of experts in the field.