On the 18th, the Danish government publicly accused Russia of being behind two "destructive and disruptive" cyber attacks targeting Denmark's critical infrastructure and political processes, describing them as "very clear evidence" of Russia's "hybrid war" against the West.
The Danish Defense Intelligence Agency issued a statement on the same day saying that Moscow instigated a cyber attack on a Danish water company in 2024, as well as a series of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on a number of Danish websites on the eve of the Danish municipal and regional parliamentary elections in November this year. Intelligence agencies pointed out that the former was carried out by the pro-Russian hacker group "Z-Pentest", and the latter was launched by the "NoName057(16)" organization with ties to the Russian state.
The statement stated that both organizations are regarded by the Russian state as tools to implement hybrid warfare against the West. Their purpose is to create unrest in target countries and punish those countries that support Ukraine. Intelligence services have stressed that the Russian cyber operation was part of a wider influence campaign aimed at undermining Western support for Ukraine, and assessed that the Danish election was being used as a platform to attract public attention, a pattern that has been seen in several European elections.
Thomas Arenkiel, director of Denmark's Defense Intelligence Agency, said authorities had "a high degree of confidence" that the actions were carried out by pro-Russian groups with ties to the Russian state. Danish Defense Minister Trolls Lund Poulsen condemned the related attacks as "completely unacceptable" and said that he had attached great importance to this series of incidents.
In the water supply facility attack that occurred in December 2024, hackers took control of a water plant in the town of Coe and tampered with the water pump pressure settings, causing three pipes to rupture. Poulsen pointed out that this incident "shows very clearly that the hybrid war we were talking about before is now unfortunately happening before our eyes" and once again highlights the seriousness of the current situation in Europe.
Poulsen revealed that the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs will summon the Russian ambassador to Denmark to make formal representations. He emphasized that "it is completely unacceptable for Russia to carry out hybrid attacks in Denmark."
Although the actual physical damage caused by these attacks was limited, Minister for Resilience and Emergency Preparedness Torsten Schaak-Petersen noted that these incidents showed that "there are real forces capable of shutting down important parts of our society." He admitted that Denmark currently does not have sufficient capabilities to resist such attacks from Russia, and said: "It would be naive if anyone thinks that we are already at the top level in terms of cybersecurity."
In September this year, many airports and areas of military significance in Copenhagen encountered multiple drone intrusions, which Denmark also characterized as "hybrid attacks." These incidents exposed vulnerabilities in Denmark's defense capabilities and prompted accelerated discussions within the EU on plans to build a European "drone defense wall" to deal with airspace provocations and provocations from Russia.