December 21, 2025
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picture alliance/ASSOCIATED PRESS/Sergei Grits
Europe is increasingly using cyber tools to confront Russia, avoiding publicity and official statements. Western countries are relying on covert digital operations in response to hacking attacks attributed to Moscow.
This strategy is called “invisible war” in Berlin, writes Die Welt.
Several European Union countries already possess offensive cyber capabilities and use them covertly. According to the publication, Western governments are responding to cyberattacks attributed to Russia not with diplomatic demarches but with covert strikes in digital space.
The article focuses on the Estonian company CybExer, which specializes in both protecting against and conducting hacker attacks. Company representative Aare Reintam confirmed that CybExer provides offensive cyber tools to several EU countries at once. According to him, this is what modern warfare looks like today.
Welt journalists describe the company’s office as a command post: on the screens are maps with infrastructure objects, from residential buildings to energy towers, which are marked depending on their level of security or the fact of a hack.
Reintam explains that it is not necessary to attack strategic, highly protected facilities to destabilize the system. Less visible elements, such as water systems, can be vulnerable. Because they use outdated 2G networks with weak encryption, an attack on water pumps can have far-reaching consequences, from technical failures to health problems.
The publication emphasizes that participation in such operations is officially denied by all parties. At the same time, Estonia, which Die Welt calls one of the leaders in cybersecurity in Europe, has its own bitter experience: in 2007, the country suffered a massive cyberattack on state resources and banks.
It was after this that the NATO Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) was established in Tallinn. It analyzes real cyber attacks and practices scenarios of future threats. According to Bundeswehr Lieutenant Colonel Christoph Kühn, one of the key areas of the centre’s work is training, as cyber warfare requires not only technology but also trained specialists.
This year, CCDCOE conducted two large-scale exercises – one dedicated to repelling cyberattacks, the other to offensive operations in the event of a serious escalation.
As a reminder, cyber specialists of the Main Intelligence Directorate have once again hacked the servers of the occupation authorities in Crimea. As a result of the successful operation, the intelligence officers gained full access to all computers and servers of the self-proclaimed authorities of the temporarily occupied peninsula.
As OBOZ.UA reported, due to the illegal elections held in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, cyber specialists of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine carried out a large-scale attack on the resources of the Russian Central Election Commission. This happened on the so-called single voting day of September 14, 2025.
Well, this is a start. A small one, and even this surprises me a little.
Europe should and could do a lot more to counter mafia land’s hybrid warfare, like send drones into their airspace, cap their undersea cables, stop shadow fleet tankers, set fire to their critical infrastructure, assassinate certain individuals, and more.
I know, it’s all just wishful thinking.