Denmark raises threat level for destructive cyber attacks to 3 on 5-level scale

NORDEFCO press conference in Torshavn, on the Faroe Islands

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -The Danish Centre for Cyber Security (CFCS) has raised its threat level assessment for destructive cyber attacks against Denmark to "middle" from "low" due to increasing threats from Russia, the defence minister said on Tuesday.

The "middle" level, or three on a five-level scale, implies that there are one or more actors with intention and capacity for attacks or harmful activity, but no indications of any specific plans for such activity, according to the CFCS.

"Increasingly, we see a Russia that is willing to challenge NATO countries through sabotage, influencing campaigns and cyber attacks," Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told a press conference.

Poulsen said there is no direct military threat to Denmark, citing the Danish Defence Intelligence Service.

(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Anna Ringstrom)