NATO could trigger Article 5 in event of alleged Russian cyberattack – reports
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview released on Monday that the bloc might invoke Article 5 on collective defense if it decides that Russia has carried out a cyberattack against one of its members, Sputnik reports.
"Not automatically. It depends on the character of the cyberattack… We will never be specific on when we trigger Article 5," Stoltenberg told Axios news portal, answering a question about if the article would be invoked in the event of a hypothetical Russian cyberattack.
Stoltenberg added that the alliance had been boosting its cybersecurity and planned to develop offensive cyber capabilities.
In July, NATO said in a statement following a summit in Brussels that in the event of a hybrid war the bloc would trigger its Article 5 on collective defense.
NATO allies have been boosting their cybersecurity-related defense cooperation for years. Since 2008, they have been holding Cyber Coalition, a major cyberdefense exercise. However, the alliance's member states first recognized cyberspace as a 'domain of operations' akin to land, air, and sea at their summit in Warsaw in 2016.