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DEFENCE

‘Things are changing’: Europe’s defence chiefs

It took a photo to drive it home. The ministers controlling the armed forces of four of Europe's countries are now women.

Published: 3 February 2014 08:26 CET
'Things are changing': Europe's defence chiefs
The defence ministers of Europe, from left to right: Ine Eriksen Søreide (Norway), Karin Enstrom (Sweden), Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (Netherlands), Ursula von der Leyen (Germany): Source: Twitter
Norwegian defence minister Ine Eriksen Søreide was photographed alongside Karin Enström (Sweden), Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (Netherlands) and Ursula von der Leyen (Germany)  at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. 
 
According to the UK's Guardian newspaper, the idea for the photo came from Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the Dutch defence minister, after the group met to celebrate the appointment of von der Leyen, the most recent of their number. 
 
Hennis-Plasschaert tweeted out the photo alongside the words "onderonsje", meaning "huddle", after which it was picked up by the Guardian newspaper, among others.  
 
"Neelie Kroes [a Dutch EU politician] once said to me that old boys' networks are the oldest form of cartels we have in Europe," Hennis-Plasschaert  told the Guardian on Saturday. "She was right, but things are changing, and women can do similar things now."
 
According to the newspaper, when Pieter De Crem, Belgium's make defence minister, spotted the group, he joked: "Oh, I'll better get out of the picture." 
 
Sweden's foreign minister, Carl Bildt, on Sunday tweeted out the photo along with the words "True Power Girls", sparking a Twitter flurry over whether he should have said "women". 
 

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DEFENCE

France recruits 1,800 extra staff to cyber warfare unit

The French defence ministry on Wednesday announced plans to significantly boost the country's four-year-old cyber warfare force, citing the "growing number and gravity" of hacking attacks on the country.

Published: 9 September 2021 08:23 CEST
France recruits 1,800 extra staff to cyber warfare unit
French defence minister Florence Parly. Photo: Alain Jocard/AFP

The government had already planned to add an additional 1,100 recruits to a unit created in response to the growing number of cyber attacks on the West, mostly blamed on Russia and China.

Defence Minister Florence Parly told a cyber security conference in the city of Lille on Wednesday she had decided to go further to try make France “a cyber security champion”.

Warning of a “Cold War in cyberspace” she said she would hire an extra 770 cyber combattants on top of an additional 1,100 already planned, bringing the force’s staffing level to 5,000 by 2025.

France and other Western countries are alarmed over a growing number of increasingly aggressive cyber attacks, including data breaches and ransomware attacks, which typically see hackers encrypting victims’ data and then demanding money for restored access.

Recent high-profile targets have included a US oil pipeline, Ireland’s health service and India’s flag carrier Air India.

Parly said that the French army needed to increase it use of the “cyber weapon”.

“Our opponents do not shy away from doing so, whether state powers, terrorist groups or their backers,” she said.

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