Combat planes, drones, nuclear umbrella … At a time when the United States turns their backs on the EU, it seeks to consolidate its ramparts against Russia by Vladimir Putin. This March 6, during an extraordinary summit, Ursula von der Leyen will offer Europeans a plan at 800 billion euros to build their defense. Let Brussels be careful, in this sequence, to neglect its digital fortifications. Because there too, the support of the Americans no longer seems to go without saying.
In early March, several American newspapers noted signals in this direction. Several sources of the cybersecurity specialist media The Record said that the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had ordered US Cyber Command to temporarily stop planning actions against Russian hackers, including “offensive” operations.
Additional surveys of Washington Post and New York Times suggest that this relaxation would have been organized to encourage the Kremlin to sit at the negotiating table. THE Guardian and the Washington Post Also obtained elements suggesting that the United States changed the classification of cyber threats deemed priority, for the benefit of this country.
The Pentagon quickly has denial that Pete Hegseth ordered any break from cyber operations aimed at Russia. The agency responsible for cybersecurity and infrastructure safety (CISA) has for its part declared that “no change in positon had been made. Any affirmation of the contrary is false and undermines the national security of the United States.”
Americans, uncertain bulwark against Russian hackers
Given the warming of relations between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Europeans, however, have an interest in considering the hypothesis that in the future, the Americans help them fight against the Russian cyber threat. The darkest scenario would be that they sign a digital non -aggression pact – I no longer start on your hackers if they stop targeting us – which would be at the expense of the old continent. Because for the time being, Americans are by far our first source of information and defense against these attackers with sophisticated methods.
In the state field, three of their pillars are interested in this threat. “The CISA is centered on the cyber-defense of critical infrastructure, which notably includes the electoral system, the NSA focuses on intelligence and the US Cyber Command is turned towards American military operations, the way of protecting them and disturbing the opponent, with a spy component”, explains Gérôme Billois, partner specialist in cybersecurity of the Wall. Nicolas Cougot de Cyber attacks, the underside of a global threat (Dark Side editions).
But American tech companies like Microsoft, Mandiant (Google), Crowdstrike, Palo Alto Networks also play a key role in the fight against these threats.
“The resources devoted by the US State are of a completely different scale, sums up Arnaud Pilon, responsible for the response activities to the incidents of Synacktiv. Where they can mobilize a hundred experts, we can put two. This ratio increases still if we count their private companies in the cybersecurity sector.” The Americans have also decisively contributed to the cyberfense of Ukraine.
These European countries which can consolidate the shield
If they release their vigilance, the threat will intensify quickly. So how to organize the European response? Fortunately, the 27 do not start from scratch. “France, in particular, understood very early on that it had to maintain autonomy in three areas deemed critical,” explains Gérôme Billois. The ability to detect attacks, communications encryption and field networks, such as the radios of the police or emergency services. Europeans must, however, “coordinate much more closely,” said Arnaud Pilon. Germany but also from smaller countries with advanced know-how such as Estonia or the Netherlands can help consolidate this shield.
“If a company from a European country is attacked, specialized networks must disseminate adequate data so that this cannot happen in another EU country,” illustrates the person responsible for response to Synacktiv incidents. Embarking the United Kingdom with us would also change the situation, because the country has considerable resources in the field.
Experts interviewed also recommend monitoring the position of the American private sector as well as milk on fire. If Washington decides to release the pressure on the Russians, will companies be pushed to do the same? If so, our risk exposure will significantly increase. Because European companies use many American products to protect themselves. “This recalls the need to use more French or European technologies in critical fields of this type,” said Antonin Hily, CTO of Jizo Ai (formerly Sesame IT).
“We have rarely seen such powerful criminal groups”
Reducing our dependence on American technologies, however, will only be done gradually. So in the meantime, you must try to use them in a more controlled setting. “Buy software licenses rather than taking cloud subscriptions, and using programs on servers located on our soil with exclusively French law employees. This deprives the latest new features, but that reduces risks,” analyzes Gérôme Billois.
In a tense international context, Europeans also have more interest in quickly applying the NIS2 directive which gives a harmonized framework of cybersecurity rules. “We have rarely seen criminal groups as powerful as these hackers networks located in Russia. They are able to penetrate the systems of very large industrialists and to remain hidden for months without anyone spotting it,” warns Antonin Hily.
If a “Cyber Peace” between Americans and Russians was clearing, we may even have to review our doctrine in terms of information sharing on computer attacks with the United States. The experts hope, however, that this disaster scenario does not materialize. It is true that it would not be in the interest of the United States.
Admittedly, if Vladimir Putin gives the order to save the Americans in the future, the hackers of the state sphere will obey him. “But it will be very difficult not to say impossible to control the traditional criminal sphere which has a nuclear structure with central organizations which sell their malicious programs to an extended galaxy of affidues”, points Antonin Hily. If the United States releases its surveillance against Russian hackers, the country’s businesses are therefore likely to pay the price. Given the inconsistency of Donald Trump’s actions since the start of his second term, this scenario is unfortunately less extravagant than it would have seemed to be four months earlier.
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