The U.K., the Netherlands and other European Union governments are pushing the bloc to expand the scope of its sanctions regime to include cyber attacks, following alleged attempts by Russian and Chinese operatives to infiltrate the computer systems of agencies in Europe and the U.S.
The EU has sanctions protocols in place targeting states for violating nuclear and chemical weapons treaties or harboring terrorism. Now the group of countries, that also includes Estonia, Finland, Lithuania and Romania, wants the bloc to introduce a similar system against the individuals and organizations that are behind cyber-attacks, according to a memo obtained by Bloomberg. EU leaders are slated to discuss security next week in Brussels.
