MOSCOW, April 10. /TASS/. NATO is busy building up its capabilities for cyberattacks and information operations against Russia, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
"NATO's military and political leadership continues to build up its military capabilities with an eye on the Russian information space to prepare and conduct cyber operations. The US and its allies are using a network of centers that sit along the perimeter of our country's borders - in Estonia, Latvia, Finland - and are controlled by the [US] National Security Agency," she said at a news conference. "In the future, they want to engage Moldova, and unfortunately, Georgia, where cyber laboratories are being created and will be created to provide operational and technical support to groups and personnel of the cyber command or the bloc's special operation forces."
According to the diplomat, these centers are used to monitor and collect intelligence data, process scenarios of delivering information-technology strikes against critical facilities of Russia's information infrastructure.
"All this serves as proof that Western countries, hiding behind slogans about the protection of so-called values, use information and communication technologies as one of the tools of the hybrid warfare that was unleashed against Russia," she said.
As a counterpoint to this Western policy, Zakharova said Russia and the majority of developing states of the Global South stand for other principles and approaches as they advocate on international negotiating platforms for the formation of a fair and equitable system of global information security, and the development of, and compliance with rules in this area that would be uniform for all.
"We are convinced that this is the only solution that will ensure compliance with the principles of sovereign equality of states and non-interference in their internal affairs, and will contribute to the prevention and peaceful resolution of conflicts in the use of information and communication technologies," Zakharova said.
Cyberattacks employing Ukrainian hackers
Since the start of Russia’s special military operation, the scale and intensity of cyberattacks on critical facilities of Russia’s information infrastructure and Russian citizens have reached an unprecedented level, the diplomat said.
Behind many major cyberattacks are foreign special services, and they act mainly through Ukrainian hackers, Zakharova said.
"It's convenient," she said. "It is no secret that Ukraine has also become a foothold for aggression against Russia in the information space. Officials in Kiev openly say this, and they take pride in carrying out cyberattacks against our country, often trying even to take responsibility for fictitious operations."