White House cyber expert to travel to Europe over Russian threat

Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, is set to travel to Europe to meet with her European Union counterparts and NATO representatives in Brussels this week to talk about cyber challenges presented by Russia.

The White House said Neuberger will travel to Warsaw to meet with Polish and Baltic officials and members of the Bucharest Nine, including Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

Neuberger will first travel to Belgium to meet with NATO and the European Union cyber leaders, a senior administration official said. She will discuss cybersecurity with German and French officials virtually.

"[Neuberger will] discuss how we will coordinate and support Ukraine, and each other, in the event that cyberattacks occur," the senior official said.

Last month, Ukraine blamed Russia for a cyberattack targeting the computers of government agencies, accusing the Kremlin of waging "a hybrid war" amid heightened tensions between the two countries.

Kiev said all evidence points to Russia being behind the attack, stating its motivation is to reduce the public's trust in the Ukrainian government by exposing vulnerabilities in critical information infrastructure and through draining Ukrainian data.