In an interview for AP, Montenegro Defense Minister Predrag Bošković stated that defending against cyber-attacks and misinformation is crucial for protecting the Balkans from returning to the chaos of the 1990s, when tens of thousands of people died during the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
“We could see that the 2016 US election also came under some hybrid and cyber attacks. Americans can learn something from us about potential threats to their system and networks, since Montenegro is a true example of a comprehensive pre-election attack.“
One of the malicious software attacks happened to the Ministry of Defense of Montenegro via regular email and at that time it looked as if it had come from a NATO member state, but in fact it was a hacker attack.
“When an employee clicked on an email attachment, all the computers on the network were hit and hackers could read all available data on the network,” he said.
According to AP, Montenegro represents a strategic area in which Russia is trying to regain its historical influence and has proven to be a key Western ally in a pretty unstable region that went through a devastating war in the 1990s.
