Estonia to hold cyber exercise for EU defense ministers next week

As the current presidency of the Council of the European Union, Estonia will organize a strategic-level table-top cyber exercise, the first of its kind, in the framework of an informal meeting of EU defense ministers next week.
"We will play through cyberattacks against the military structures of the EU, show what the impact of the attack is, and escalate the situation until activity on the EU level is expected," Tanel Sepp, deputy director of the Ministry of Defence's Cyber Policy Department, told BNS on Wednesday.
He said that the exercise scenario is based on the powers of the defense ministries in the EU, which is the common defense ands security policy of the EU. The aim of the EU CYBRID 2017 exercise is to highlight the importance of cyber defense in the military operations of the EU.
"Our aim is to explain simply, in a way that is understandable to politicians in particular, what these cyberattacks mean," Sepp said, adding that ministers' respective knowledge of the cyber field may differ. "The essence of the explanation is that we show them the impact — how some attack may influence cerrtain functions of some military operation, and how this may impact the whole opeation."
According to the ministry official, they have written certain hybrid elements into the scenario, which will involve the pressure of the media as well as social media campaigns. "So we are creating a technical pressure for the politicians," Sepp said, adding that the exact content of the scenarios could not be disclosed.
Minister of Defence Jüri Luik has previously stated that the exercise should highlight the limits of EU and NATO responsibilities as well as situations which may require cooperation between the two, adding that the results of the exercise would be used in policy planning.
The informal meeting of the defense ministers of the EU, scheduled to take place on Sept. 7, will discuss topics concerning permanent structured defense cooperation as well as the European Defence Fund.
The EU currently has ongoing military operations on the Mediterranean Sea, in the Central African Republic, Mali and Somalia.
Editor: Aili Vahtla
Source: BNS