'The European Union needs to use its strength,' says MEP Riho Terras on European cybersecurity

Europe is increasingly finding itself on the front line of a shadow war. From cyber attacks targeting supermarket refrigeration systems to suspicious incidents disrupting commercial aviation, a growing number of hybrid threats are exposing the vulnerabilities of critical infrastructure across the continent. Russia and other hostile actors are suspected of exploiting these weaknesses to sow disruption, fear and Is Europe doing enough to defend itself? For more on this, I'm now joined by Rio Terras, an Estonian member of the European Parliament from the European People's Party, where he serves on the Committees for Foreign Affairs and Security and Defense. Good morning and welcome to the program. Good morning. So, why are seemingly mundane targets such as supermarkets, airports and transport networks becoming increasingly attractive to hostile actors? I would say that these targets are different, the attacks against the supermarkets are attacks against the infrastructure which actually is not critical or vital services because the critical and vital services like the airports, etc. need to be disconnected from the internet. And we have seen the attacks against the supermarkets, which, in my opinion, is just... Not enough finances from the side of the owner of the shops and not enough upgrades to the computer systems. I think that can be avoided and that is actually something which needs to be trained and regularly looked at. The other thing is the critical infrastructure and vital services and there the responsibility of the states is very important Thank you. The European Union has already decided about the Network and Information Security Act. Let me ask you this. Russia is the usual suspect when it comes to hybrid operations across Europe. But France has now accused Iran's Revolutionary Guard of orchestrating the supermarket cyber attacks. Do you believe Moscow and Tehran are coordinating their efforts to put pressure on Europe? I don't know. It is sure that they will use both sides, but whether they coordinate, I am not that sure about it. But to create a chaos before the elections in France, after the riots on the streets, it just fits to the picture. And the chaos and instability and the feeling in the population that government does not do enough, that is what they are aiming for. And that... It's very easy to do, especially in the times where we have Internet of Things, which normally is almost not protected properly. You can create very easily chaos without any big restrictions, I think. We need to really attribute these attacks to the state actors, like the French did to Iran, and then use our package of tools, sanctions, Thank you. Diplomacy to deal with this with the things and then important thing is that the European Union needs to use its strength All right, Riho Terras MEP from Estonia. Thank you very much for your time this morning this morning.