Ex naval chief calls for more corporate resilience

“People should be worried.” So began the speech from retired commander of the Belgian Navy and former head of the intelligence services Vice-Admiral Wim Robberecht, who was addressing an audience of risk and insurance managers at the golden jubilee of Belrim, the Belgian risk and insurance management association.

Robberecht called on companies to be more resilient, especially those in the public sector or with critical infrastructure, amid the growing threat of disinformation and cyberattacks from state-sponsored attackers. “A new cold war has already started. Those who have their heads in the sand are wrong,” he warned.

“Cybercrime is increasing. Once you’re hacked, the door is open and they will use it for their convenience. We are seeing state-sponsored espionage and even sabotage. If you look at critical infrastructure, it is a threat to the nation,” said Robberecht.

Robberecht also talked of a transition between the old world and the new when it comes to political discourse and the risk landscape.

“When you’re angry, you need to divert that anger somewhere, so the public state becomes the target. The justice department and democracy is under threat. The grey zone doesn’t exist any more. It’s either them or us. It goes hand in hand with a decline in tolerance,” said Robberecht.

Robberecht’s presentation followed that of celebrated Belgian war reporter Rudi Vranckx, who described the experience of working in and reporting from war zones in Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine, among other places.

Geopolitical tension has become an increasing concern for corporate risk managers due to the disruption to supply chains and the macroeconomic volatility that has resulted from conflicts.
These tensions and uncertainties have been exacerbated by the fact that half the western world is having or has had a general election this year – in the UK, the US, France and, of course, Belgium.

Vranckx cited the words of Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci, uttered almost 100 years ago, to describe the rise of populist politics. “The old world is dying. The new world is struggling to be born. Now is the time of monsters.”

Vranckx also referred to the pivotal election in the US in November and the possibility of a Trump presidency.

“The problem with Trump is his unpredictability. Will he support Israel’s bombing campaign? Will he stop supporting Ukraine. Will he make a deal with North Korea? Will there be a trade war with China? In his previous regime, at least there were some grown-ups in the room. Now he is surrounded by ideologues and not professionals.”

Another risk linked to geopolitical uncertainty cited by both Vranckx and Robberecht is online propaganda and fake news. “This is the real front line,” said Vranckx. “How can we make people understand that we are looking for the truth? When we went to Ukraine, we were constantly fed information through telegram channels. You see the war in real-time with drone attacks. And now with AI, you see deepfakes such as the one featuring Zelenskiy calling on his people to give up.

“It is an unpredictable world and we don’t know what it will look like in the future,” said Vranckx. “The challenge will be very difficult and I don’t know the answer. Pick trustworthy people.”

The process of picking people will be tested in the elections to come. “The problem arises when a foreign agent wants to interfere in domestic politics, said Robberecht. “It is difficult to identify a state-sponsored operative. Their aim is to bring down western democracy.”

“A lot is said about foreign manipulations and interference (FIMI) but it should get a lot more attention than it does,” said Robberecht. “Why is someone trying to change the narrative on my company or my government? It is only on election days that the issues get the attention that they should. But it is not the voting machines that are being attacked or manipulated, it is the voters.”

Robberecht called for more resilience, not just on an individual level but organisational too. “We have to be more resilient and not believe everything we read or hear. And we have to be more careful about procurement, particularly within government and the public sector.

“We have to build more resilient public services,” said Robberecht. “For example, when you’re buying scanning machines for the coastguard and connecting them to the national public service network, don’t buy the cheapest technology or the ones that come from Russia and China.”

Belgium also needs harmonised standards between Belgian companies and government, said Robberecht. Nor is he alone in wanting more interoperability about risks, and cyber risks specifically, between various agencies. For example, in January, Belgium’s defence minister Ludovine Dedonder called for greater cooperation between Europe’s armed forces.

“The interoperability of European armies is today more than ever conditioned by their interoperability in cyberspace,” she told a conference of EU cyber ambassadors and commanders.