NATO narrowly defeated the Ukrainian team in a cyberwar simulation — FT
During large-scale three-day NATO exercises simulating hybrid warfare, the Alliance’s defending team narrowly defeated Ukrainian specialists who were conducting a coordinated “cyberattack.”
The main goal of these exercises was to thoroughly test the readiness of Alliance member states to effectively counter modern disinformation campaigns, which Ukraine faces on a daily basis in real life.
The military cyberwar was simulated in detail in the city of Bydgoszcz, Poland, where a joint NATO-Ukraine facility is located.
According to the scenario, the fictional democratic country of Peranza was plunged into total darkness as a result of a massive cyberattack on its national power grid.
The aggression was carried out by an authoritarian neighbor—a hostile state named Karti, which has long held territorial claims—and Ukrainian representatives were tasked with playing the role of the attackers.
The large-scale three-day simulation involved conducting aggressive online campaigns aimed at sowing discord and completely disorienting the local population amid a severe infrastructure crisis.
In addition to a total power outage, the exercise participants also tested two other complex scenarios.
Experts examined how legitimate authorities would communicate with citizens in the event of a major flood and during a complete takeover of the banking system by hackers.
The Ukrainian offensive operations team instantly flooded social media with AI-generated posts.
These posts blamed every domestic crisis on government incompetence and corruption, while simultaneously offering to send humanitarian aid to affected residents on behalf of the aggressor.
“Perantsa can’t help, but Karti can,” read one of the hostile messages that hackers published directly on the hacked website of the fictional government.
In response, the “Perantsa” team organized a defense, spreading calls for national unity and warnings about looting and other forms of disorder.
According to the assessment of a strict jury, which included leading scientists and disinformation experts, the “Karti” team lost to the defenders by only a narrow margin.
The organizers noted the high technical proficiency and ingenuity of Ukrainian specialists during the conduct of psychological operations.
The results of this unique computer experiment were reported by the authoritative international publication Financial Times.
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