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In an age where digital warfare knows no borders, the East and West are now racing in an invisible but relentless cyberspace – from China to the United States. But how do southern European countries fit in?
**”**We play our role very well on the border, in the corner, in the southeast corner of Europe. We wouldn’t want to be us,” said Michael Bletsas, commander of Greece’s National Cyber Security Authority, told Euronews Next.
“We would very much like the borders of Europe to be further east, but unfortunately, we don’t see the conditions for this to happen in the near future, so we will necessarily play this role and we are already playing it. It would just be good if other countries would recognise it to a greater extent than they do today,” he added.
Given Greece’s geographical location, the threats it faces are different compared to those of the Baltic States.
“In Northeastern Europe, in the Baltic Sea, we have several incidents at the moment which could be clearly characterised as hybrid warfare,” said Blestas.
He said there are no such incidents in Greece as sabotage, attacks on infrastructure, or cables being cut. But he said there is too much cybercrime in the country.
“Right now, what is most visible is cybercrime. We have too much activism, cyberactivism, vandalism, if you like, mostly denial of service attacks, triple good service, attacks, but which do not leave permanent damage and which are quite easily dealt with,” he said.
“We have quite a lot of cybercrime, which is increasing more and more because the use of artificial intelligence gives additional capabilities to criminals. Right now, from us, we are seeing a big increase in attacks, and of course, we have a lot of espionage_,”_ he added.
The big question is whether Greece can remain neutral in the digital East-West conflict. Blestas argues that there is no neutrality.
“We have lost it here and too much. It’s just that Athens has to deal with an additional aggressive neighbour from the east, which the rest of our European partners don’t seem to get, with the rest of our European partners seeing it as so hostile,” he said.
He said that’s where several issues arise.
_”_Separating the physical from the digital world is one and the same. The nervous system is more extensive than what we have in the real world. Therefore, we should think of security in the same terms as automatic automation that we think of it in the physical world. Only then will we be safe,” he said.
Digital warfare is not a war of the future – it is a war of now. And Greece, whether it likes it or not, is already in it. So the question is not whether it will participate, but on what terms, with what alliances and how much preparedness.