The US faced serious risks in cyberspace as early as the 1990s, however, many European NATO member states have long clearly underestimated the threats to their own security that come from cyberspace.
The situation changed somewhat when on April 27, 2007, the Estonian authorities dismantled the «Bronze Soldier» – monument to Soviet soldiers during the Second World War.
Responding to this step, the Russians launched several waves of coordinated hacker attacks that disabled the websites of the parliament, Estonia, ministries, state institutions, banks and the mass media.
In response to the massive cyberattacks launched by the Russians against Estonians, the North Atlantic Alliance headquarters in Brussels and the Estonian government established a new military organization in Tallinn in 2008 called the Joint Advanced Technology Center for NATO Cyber Defense. Its main goal – is to strengthen the cyber defense of the member countries of the Alliance, which includes conducting research, training specialists and organizing large specialized exercises (such as Locked Shields).
Since 2016, the Alliance has significantly increased its investments in the field of cyber defense, however, most of its members, independently and independently of other NATO countries, have been engaged in strengthening the protection of their own national networks, while the challenges of the times have required the members of the Alliance to develop joint programs and initiatives.
In April 2021, US President Joseph Biden announced a project to create a collective security system in cyberspace called «Cyber Flag 21-1», aimed at improving the overall ability of the US and its European NATO allies to identify, synchronize and simultaneously respond to malicious cyber activity directed against critical infrastructure and key resources of member countries of this project.
In November 2023, the then Secretary General of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, speaking in Berlin during the annual NATO conference on cyber defense, said that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was another confirmation that the cyber sphere is a component of modern war and a new arena for global competition.
He pointed out that when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, its tanks and troops were supported by massive cyber attacks to disrupt communications between the Ukrainian military, police forces and intelligence agencies.
As of 2025, little has changed in cyberspace within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization: most bloc members take a passive defense position and only a minority of – states such as the United States, Great Britain and Canada bear the burden of active countermeasures and offensive operations in cyberspace. As a result, many defend themselves, but few fight.
Independent military analysts are convinced that the Alliance is already in cyber conflict, but refuse to admit it. For their part, Russian and Russian-backed hacking groups take advantage of this NATO indecision.
As experts emphasize, the cyber sphere is constantly changing: every update, patch or new program changes this space. Therefore, too long a delay in responding to an attack gives the opponent the opportunity to fully master the initiative in the cyber sphere.
Instead, offensive operations make it possible to damage the enemy’s infrastructure, command and control centers, and prevent the enemy from penetrating its own network and the networks of allies. With this in mind, independent experts advise the Alliance to take offensive capabilities into service and respond within cyberspace proactively, not reactively.
In turn, deterrence and defense – is not a strategy that works effectively within the cyber sphere. Therefore, experts call on NATO member states, first of all, to eliminate existing obstacles to strengthening their positions in cyberspace, namely – to change outdated laws, rebuild the inflexible structure of specialized organizations and start investing sufficient (not limited) resources in this area.
The already mentioned Republic of Poland recorded 170,000 cyber incidents in the first three quarters of 2025.
Most of them are attributed by Polish experts to pro-Russian hackers, while a minority of cases are financially motivated by – theft and other types of cybercrime. Polish Deputy Prime Minister-Minister of Digital Technologies Krzysztof Hawkowski expressed confidence that his country is currently experiencing the largest number of cyber attacks among EU members.
According to him, Poland records from 2 to 4 thousand incidents in cyberspace every day, of which about a thousand «cases are taken into operation» –, which means that they pose a real threat and can cause serious problems for the state. He reported that most often the targets of attacks are critical infrastructure facilities, primarily related to water supply, drainage and energy.
In general, according to the assessment of Polish intelligence services, in 2025 Putin’s dictatorship tripled the resources for conducting cyber attacks against the Republic of Poland. As official Warsaw suggests, this happened for two reasons.
First, Poland’s active support of Ukraine’s resistance to military aggression by Russia. Secondly, testing by the Russian special services on the example of Poland of the reaction of the member countries of the North Atlantic Alliance to hybrid military actions in general and within the framework of cyberspace in particular. Yes, Minister of Digital Technologies K. Havkovsky stated that Poland is currently in a state of hybrid war with Russia.
In the fall of 2025, pro-Russian hackers hacked the Polish credit platform SuperGrosz and stole its users’ data. K. Hawkowski warned Poles that tens of thousands of PESEL numbers (the 11-digit identification number of an individual in Poland used to identify and facilitate access to public services) were stolen during this attack.
Other records – names, surnames, phones, addresses, bank details, information about children and places of work were also stolen. All this, according to the minister, can serve as a powerful base for further crimes.
It should be noted that Poland invests heavily in protection against such cyber attacks. For 2025, a record budget for cyber security in the amount of €1 billion was set.
However, the allocated funds alone are not enough, as municipal utilities often work with outdated software and staff shortages. And the attackers know about it. Today, frequent cyberattacks are a test for Poland, while for most other European NATO members – is still a warning.
A water supply disaster in Krakow could become a reality in Paris or Berlin tomorrow. However, with adequate assistance from other member states of the Alliance, Poland will be able to demonstrate that the cyber future of the EU and NATO will be characterized as guaranteed stability, not weak fragility.