Member's statement: Drone and Cyberattacks
Member's statement by Dr Steve Aiken OBE on .
- MLA
- Dr Steve Aiken OBE
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 29 September 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Drone and Cyberattacks
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5138813
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Last week, Denmark had to consider declaring a state of emergency as drones closed airspace and airports across the country, causing millions of kroner worth of disruption. In Sweden, drones flew over the Karlskrona naval base. In Norway, drones interrupted flights at Bardufoss and Oslo. Cyberattacks have been occurring across the continent, with Jaguar Land Rover having to receive a £1·5 billion loan to stop vital supply chain suppliers going bust. Many other companies have been targeted and quietly decided to pay a ransom in Bitcoin to cyberterrorists, many of whom are based in St Petersburg, rather than admit that they have lost control of their systems. Factories in several places across Europe, including in our nation, have been subject to arson attacks. Airport check-ins, including in Dublin, Berlin and Heathrow, have been cyberattacked with malware. Our media point to the suspicious activity of the Russian research ship Yantar, which has been visiting nodes of key cables off our coasts as well as the coasts of Ireland and Norway over the past few months. The recent elections in Moldova have been plagued by interference, with fake news and false flag, social media and tear-gas attacks at polling stations and outright attempts to ballot-rig being played out. Nightly, hundreds of drone and air attacks are made against Ukraine. Those attacks are not against military targets but are designed to undermine the civilian population and terrorise. The common denominator is Russia, which is playing its hybrid warfare card, trying to impose its will on Europe and to push Putin's desire of nationalistic totalitarianism everywhere. Europe's leaders, or nearly all its leaders, are standing firm against that onslaught. However, there are a few exceptions: Viktor Orbán for one; the AfD in Germany; Slovakia; and, believe it or not, Sinn Féin's candidate for the forthcoming Irish presidency, Catherine Connolly. She recently remarked:
"NATO has played a despicable role in moving forward to the border and engaging in warmongering"
towards Russia. She also compared Germany's move to increase its defence spending as something akin to the 1930s and the rise of Hitler. That is from somebody who visited President Assad's Syria in 2018 at the height of his murderous campaign. In light of what is happening across Europe, Lenin's phrases of "useful idiot" and "fellow traveller" very clearly come to mind. While it is up to the Irish people to decide their next president, Ireland and Europe deserve better than that apologist for totalitarianism.
409 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.28 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- No identity-based framing was identified (0.62).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.27 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.30 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.48 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.48 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.17 | No |
| Overall judgement | 0.28 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 0.62 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.01 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.08 |
| Adopts it | 0.29 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.85 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.07 |
| Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty | 0.06 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.01 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.01 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 01:21 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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