Europe’s secret weapon against Russian hackers
INSIDE THE HELSINKI HQ TACKLING FAKE NEWS AND PROPAGANDA
A WISE MAN ONCE SAID KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE AND KEEP YOUR ENEMIES CLOSER — AND DEALING WITH RUSSIA YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO KEEP THOSE TWO STRANDS IN MIND. — HANNA SMITH, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC PLANNING AT HYBRID COE
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the location of Europe’s brand new security unit tackling Russian hackers and fake news websites is top secret. Only staff and a handful of wellinformed Finns can pinpoint the office’s location on a map of Helsinki.
Set up four months ago, the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE) has the daunting task of training EU and NATO members to protect themselves from the maelstrom of fake news, cyber attacks, dark diplomacy and propaganda that risks undermining Western governments.
In an age where a teen with a laptop can wreak more havoc on governments than a Soviet-era spy, the threat is greater than ever.
“We are in a new confrontational situation,” Hanna Smith, the director of strategic planning at Hybrid CoE, told The Daily Telegraph. “There are elements we can understand through the Cold War, but to say this is a new Cold War? It’s much more complicated than that. In some ways one could even argue this is perhaps scarier. Because the dividing lines are not so clear, countries’ borders are not so clear in today’s world.”
Russia is widely regarded as the worst “hybrid” offender, having been accused of trying to rig the U.S. election via “Twitter bots” — web users spreading lies on social media — and fake websites purporting to be respectable newspapers.
France came under a similar cyber attack during the 2017 election, but it remains unclear whether the Russians were behind it.
Though it is still in its infancy, America has high hopes for Hybrid CoE, a joint project of EU and NATO members. Last year, Jim Mattis, the U.S. defence secretary, hailed it as an “institution fit for our times.”
The U.K., along with Estonia, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the U.S., are all members of the $2.3 million program.
Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary-general, said this week that his organization took reports of Russian interference “very seriously,” and that it had strengthened its cyber-defences.
Before arriving in Helsinki, The Daily Telegraph was emailed a set of cryptic directions to its headquarters, which led to a red brick tunnel in a district of old and abandoned factories on the outskirts of the capital.
“Sometimes people will wait outside and ask, is this the Hybrid Centre of Excellence?” said Paivi Tampere, the centre’s special adviser. “We say to them, what centre?”
The first few months have not gone smoothly — in a bizarre twist of fortune, Hybrid CoE has already fallen prey to a Russian-led campaign of disinformation. A fake website and several social media accounts posing as the centre have been circulating online since late last year.
One Twitter account that looks similar to the centre’s official page links to a website of Russian domain, which brands the EU and NATO as “the principal threats for freedom of speech and democracy in Europe.”
A similar Facebook account is filled with posts attacking the EU and NATO while supporting Russia.
Smith said the Russian government had not denied its involvement in the hoax, which she suspected was intended to ridicule and undermine trust in the centre.
Choosing to base the centre in Helsinki is somewhat provocative, as Finland lies on Russia’s doorstep; St. Petersburg is only four hours away by train, and the countries share a 1,300-km long border.
However, Smith stresses that the centre does not see Russia as an absolute evil, and supports Hybrid CoE members trading and interacting with the West’s archrival, provided that they are acutely aware of the risks.
“We have a long historical experience relating to co-operating with Russia and that has two contradictory strands: one is that it’s an opportunity and one is that it’s a threat, though we shouldn’t exaggerate that threat,” she said.
“A wise man once said keep your friends close and keep your enemies closer — and dealing with Russia you always have to keep those two strands in mind.”