December 12, 2016
Russia is the
biggest source of cyberattacks and influence operations against Sweden,
according to the head of the Swedish Military Intelligence and Security Service
(Must).
Must is the
branch of the Swedish Armed Forces that is the main foreign intelligence agency
in the country. Its head, Major General Gunnar Karlson, spoke openly about
Russian attempts to influence Sweden during an interview with SVT’s Agenda show
on Sunday evening.
“It is pretty
easy for me to say – many of the activities we are subject to have a clear
sender, they can be traced more or less directly. It can be about spreading
false information, bending the truth, and emphasizing some arguments more than
others to make it difficult to get a clearer picture of what is happening,”
Karlson said.
Cyberattacks
which among other things attempt to gain access to intelligence are ongoing and
have long taken place, he claimed.
“It is a serious
threat because in different ways they can push themselves in to the very
foundations of a democracy and and influence democratic decision-making,”
Karlson noted.
The Must head
explained that his agency often sees influence operations (operations focusing
on affecting the behaviours of groups or populations) targeted against Sweden,
citing the example of a falsified letter purporting to have been written by
Swedish Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist.
“That was easy to
expose but clearly targeted against Sweden. It’s often not the individual
influence operations that do the worst damage, but it risks leading to a
general mistrust of information.”
Last year a
report by Sweden’s Security Service Säpo labelled Russian espionage against the
country as “extensive”.
