World Bulletin / News Desk

NATO countries are working to determine when a cyber attack would trigger the collective defense provision in the alliance's charter, a US general said on Thursday.

It "recognizes the difficulty in indirect or asymmetric activity that Russia is practising, activities below the level of conflict," Scaparrotti said.

Moscow operates "in a fashion that would be ambiguous, it would be most difficult to come to... a decision," he said.

NATO leaders have agreed that a cyber attack against a member state could trigger Article 5, and reaching a specific understanding on the issue would allow "greater agility, greater flexibility in determining how to respond," he said.