The Minister of National Defense, Helena Carreiras, will be heard in Parliament on October 11, behind closed doors, about the cyber attack that involved the exfiltration of classified NATO documents, at the request of the PSD.
That day, at 2:30 p.m., the deputies of the Parliamentary Defense Commission will hear Minister Helena Carreiras in two parts: first, the minister will be heard in a regimental hearing, which was already scheduled, and then she will clarify deputies, behind closed doors, within the framework of the request presented by the Social Democrats.
This schedule was established this Tuesday in the parliamentary defense commission with the parties agreeing on the need for a hearing on the cyberattack, reported earlier this month by Diário de Notícias.
The Social Democrat Jorge Paulo Oliveira justified the suggestion that the hearing be held behind closed doors “due to the need for confidentiality and the delicacy of the matter in question” and the Socialist Deputy Diogo Leão agreed, stating that “it would be totally irresponsible if it were not like this” taking into account the topic.
Last week, the PSD announced that it would request an optional (mandatory) hearing by the Minister of Defense, after the PS had ‘failed’ the requests presented by the PSD, the Liberal Initiative and Chega on the subject.
In the discussion that preceded the vote, the PS deputy Francisco César justified the vote against the requests presented, stating that “the worst thing that could happen on this issue” would be “taking a political discussion to the public square when that discussion It hasn’t been done yet.” political”.
At the time, Jorge Paulo Oliveira accused the PS of being “hindering the exercise of parliamentary duty, of discussing and following up on a matter that assumes seriousness -which no one denies- and that has already resulted in damage to the reputation and image ”. From Portugal”.
In addition to the Minister of Defense, the requests presented by the parties required the presence in parliament of other entities: the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the Secretary General of the Information System of the Republic, the Director General of the National Cabinet and the Secretary of State for Digitization and Administrative Modernization.
On September 13, the Public Ministry opened an investigation linked to the cyberattack against the General Staff of the Armed Forces in which classified NATO documents were extracted and put up for sale on the ‘darkWeb’.
According to a report published earlier this month by Diário de Notícias, the Portuguese government was informed of the situation by the US intelligence services, through the embassy in Lisbon, through a communication made directly to the prime minister, António Costa, last August. .
The same newspaper mentioned that this case is considered “extremely serious” and that it was US cyber-spies who detected “hundreds of documents sent by NATO to Portugal, classified as secret and confidential, for sale on the ‘darkweb'”.
Source: Observadora
