Greece is set to inaugurate a new Cyber Defense Center at the Defense Ministry in Athens on Monday afternoon, a facility built to confront the growing threat of cyber warfare to the country’s armed forces and wider public sector.
The opening ceremony, scheduled for 7 p.m., will be attended by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Defense Minister Nikos Dendias and a number of senior figures from the armed forces. The center will house the Directorate of Information Technology and Cyberspace of the Hellenic National Defense General Staff, known by its Greek acronym GEETHA, the top command body of the Greek military.
The 2,500-square-meter complex contains a round-the-clock operations center along with specialized units dedicated to artificial intelligence and data analysis, intended to strengthen national digital security. The new structure aims to support both the armed forces and the broader public sector against modern cyber warfare threats.
Dendias has said the special cyberspace unit will serve as the base of “Unit 1864,” which, together with the newly established Electronic Intelligence (“Unit 1821”) and Space Applications (“Unit 1912”) units, aspires to bring the country into a new era. The numbered designations draw on dates significant in modern Greek history. He said the move would give Greece new capabilities in what he described as the critical operational theater of cyber warfare and operations intelligence.
“The purpose is not simply to support our country’s armed forces, but the broader Greek public sector as a whole, and if you like, Greek society, against the threats of the era we live in,” Dendias said. He argued that the war in Ukraine and the wider security situation oblige Greece to reexamine doctrines it has held for decades.
