Cyber Defence

Europe confronts an enormous cyber threat. The continent hosted the first international cyber crisis—the 2007 attacks by Russian political activists that crashed computer infrastructures in Estonia. Large European nations such as the UK and France focus their defensive efforts on proactive measures, which seek to neutralize threats before they materialize. Another tool of large powers is deterrence by punishment, an attempt to prevent hostile action with the pledge of severe reprisal. Smaller powers, by contrast, lack the resources necessary to implement proactive measures or deterrence. They focus instead on reactive methods such as resiliency and redundancy, which seek to absorb the damage of attack. They strive to prevent major cyberattacks by participating in regional organizations such as NATO. Whatever their differences in doctrinal approach, European nations small and large confront a common challenge: how to defeat a novel threat in the absence of conclusive experience on which to revise strategy.