There are serious threats to Denmark, which is exposed to cyberattacks daily and has previously been overrun by unknown drones that flew over military installations and airports without being taken down.
The government will establish a situation center that will monitor, detect and ensure action against hybrid attacks around the clock. One billion kroner has been allocated over four years, and approximately 200 full-time equivalents will be added to the Danish Agency for Social Security.
- When you have the complete picture of the authorities across the board, you can identify that something is brewing, and then the authorities can react faster than today, says Minister of Social Security and Emergency Preparedness Torsten Schack Pedersen (V).
The center will monitor critical infrastructure such as electricity, water and gas supplies, including submarine cables.
The expectation is that the hybrid threat will increase in the coming years, and therefore the center should be operational during 2026. Today, Denmark's Nordic neighbors have similar centers, while it does not exist here.
Torsten Schack Pedersen refers to the fact that the National Operations Staff currently handles this type of crisis situations, and that the new center will monitor around the clock and assist the NOST.
- It is clear when The threat landscape is changing, which places new demands on our preparedness, and therefore the initiative from the government is that, like our Nordic neighbors, we are establishing a 24-hour situation center, he says.
The Danish Defense Intelligence Service (DE) assesses that Russia is currently waging a hybrid war against NATO and the West. However, there is no threat of a military attack against Denmark, according to the service.
In addition to a 24-hour situation center, the government is establishing a cyber monitoring network against hacker attacks and a cyber operations center to monitor data traffic.
- The network can keep a much better eye on what is going on in the cables and can see patterns. Is there an attack brewing so that we can take measures even more quickly to counter specific cyber incidents, says Torsten Schack Pedersen.
Several hundred billion kroner have been allocated to arm the defense, but experts and others have criticized that very little has been done in relation to civil preparedness.
A long-awaited drone strategy, which has been two years in the making, is crucial to curbing new hybrid attacks.
It is intended to eliminate the uncertainty that currently exists about who has the authority to destroy drones. Torsten Schack Pedersen has no comments on this, because it falls under the Ministry of Transport.
However, the question is what is the point of detecting drones earlier, when neither the police nor the defense are allowed to shoot down unknown drones if they are apparently harmless.
Torsten Schack Pedersen refers to the police and the defense as responsible, without going into further detail.
The government has previously said that the defense and the police must have better capabilities after drone overflights in September. The government and authorities were criticized for standing by helplessly while the drones flew around for hours.
According to Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S), the purpose of the drone incidents was to create distrust in the authorities. Her wish was that more drones could be taken down.
/ritzau/
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