Bucharest, April 8 /Agerpres/ - Disinformation, propaganda, hostile influence campaigns, cyberattacks, cyber intelligence, data harvesting are all tactics used in the war for geopolitical influence, Dean of the Bucharest National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA) Alina Bargaoanu said in remarks at the Digital Innovation Summit Bucharest (DISB) 2025 on Tuesday.

'I think if we define what is happening as less than a war and rather as a war for influence, we miss out on the big picture. I think there are five wars going on at the same time as we speak. One is the trade war, another is the capital war, another is the technology war. In some parts of the world, we have an old-fashioned war. And the fifth type is the war for geopolitical influence. I think it is important, at least in my understanding, to center the conversation around the idea that disinformation, propaganda, hostile influence campaigns, cyberattacks, cyber intelligence, data harvesting are all tactics used in this war for geopolitical influence,' explained Bargaoanu.

In he opinion, wars are fought through strategy and coordination, through resource pooling, through anticipatory thinking and disarming the enemy.

'Finding an answer to this type of war is not about solutionism, but I feel that what is needed are systemic top-down interventions, bringing together different institutions, different disciplines, different people. We also need to do it at international level, because at least in the Western world, resilience has become a beauty contest,' she said, noting that it doesn't matter that much if a certain country is very resilient and another is not resilient at all, because the strength of an alliance is defined by its weakest member. 'So, again, it is all about coming up with good interventions, not solutions, thinking about interventions and implementing them,' the SNSPA official emphasized.

In her turn, Claudia Nicolae, managing director of the National News Agency AGERPRES highlighted the idea that it is important that information and propaganda be treated in a layered manner, because it is impossible for a journalist to have all-encompassing information.

'I really believe that a collective response can deal with the disinformation and propaganda we encounter every day. It is also important to approach this information and propaganda in a layered manner, because it is impossible to ask a journalist to know everything. It is impossible to expect a journalist to understand all the technical aspects. In this case, in absence of expert support, if you try every day to glean information, because information is really very difficult to find, you cannot expect to create a completely true to reality and objective information space. So, what we actually need are shared connections,' said Claudia Nicolae.

In the same line, the head of AGERPRES argued that state institutions must stand by the journalists when it comes to information and fact-checking, because 'a public institution, an NGO or a private institution can sort out the fake news related to their activities. (...) Each actor plays a role in detecting, neutralizing, replacing and committing to true information. Technology helps. Regulations can also set certain measures in place. Education can build bridges, but culture and public trust must be maintained, secured every day and kept in a safe place. AGERPRES is an information provider, it is the first step to a news story,' said Claudia Nicolae.

Capacity building for collective responses to cyberattacks, disinformation and propaganda was the topic of a panel debate organized at the Digital Innovation Summit Bucharest, which was attended by Alina Bargaoanu and Claudia Nicolae, as well as by Secretary of State with the Prime Minister's Chancellery Dragos Hotea, broadcaster Digi24 Senior Producer Cristina Cileacu, Christos Kalloniatis - Professor at the University of the Aegean - Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, and Sundri Khalsa from the National Intelligence University.

The National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics - ICI Bucharest is organizing April 8 through 11 at the Palace of Parliament a new edition of the Digital Innovation Summit Bucharest (DISB), an event that brings together over 200 speakers from more than 30 countries. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Daniel Badea; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)