Asked if Spain feared Russia could launch
such an attack, Robles told journalists "the possibility of a cyberattack
exists", without mentioning the country by name.
"There are many challenges and many
threats," she said, adding that there were "many people working... to
prevent any situation that could affect security" at the summit on June
28-30.
According to the Barcelona daily La
Vanguardia, Spanish intelligence services fear a Russian attack on strategic
infrastructure such as airports, hospitals, or water and energy supply centres.
The Spanish capital will be under tight
security.
Some 10,000 law enforcement officers have
been deployed for the summit, which will be attended by US President Joe Biden,
his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson
and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine is set to
dominate talks.
Recently, Microsoft accused state-backed
Russian hackers to have been engaged in “strategic espionage” against
governments, think tanks, businesses and aid groups in 42 countries supporting
Kyiv.
“Since the start of the war, the Russian
targeting (of Ukraine's allies) has been successful 29 percent of the time,”
Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote, with data stolen in at least one-quarter
of the successful network intrusions.
“As a coalition of countries has come
together to defend Ukraine, Russian intelligence agencies have stepped up
network penetration and espionage activities targeting allied governments
outside Ukraine,” Smith said.
Nearly two-thirds of the cyberespionage
targets involved NATO members. The United States was the prime target and
Poland, the main conduit for military assistance flowing to Ukraine, was the
second. In the past two months, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Turkey
have seen stepped-up targeting.