The Deputy Commander of the Joint Cyber Command warns of digital escalation and calls for leaders prepared for a cyber-dependent world

• General Juste delivered a lecture entitled ‘The challenge of operations in cyberspace’ at TIC CIBER 2026

The Deputy Commander of the Joint Cyber Command (MCCE), Major General Federico Juste de Santa Ana, took part in the conference on cybersecurity applied to the public sector, TIC CIBER 2026, whose theme this year was ‘Protecting the future of public administrations’.

In his lecture ‘The challenge of operations in cyberspace’, General Juste warned that ‘the rules of the game in cyberspace have changed radically’. Threats such as sabotage of critical infrastructure, attacks on supply chains and the use of offensive AI by actors without extensive IT knowledge ‘are driving a digital arms race towards ‘active defence’, making AI a key factor in geopolitical hegemony’, he emphasised.

General Juste stressed that in the face of this ‘irreversible reality’ of a hybrid and utterly cyber-dependent world, there is an ‘urgent need for leaders who know, understand and are able to make decisions in this new environment. Without this leadership capacity adapted to the digital realm, any initiative or undertaking will inevitably be doomed to failure’.

Finally, the Deputy Commander of the MCCE highlighted that the dizzying pace of technological change makes it impossible to predict the future, making ingenuity and the ability to adapt swiftly the most effective defence tools. He therefore concluded with a call for collective responsibility, asserting that in cyberspace ‘we are all combatants and responsible for ‘digital health’, as it only takes one person to let their guard down for us all to fall’.

TIC CIBER 2026 brought together CIOs, CISOs and IT managers from the main public administrations in a space designed for the exchange of knowledge, collaboration and the creation of strategic alliances. Throughout the day, key issues were addressed, such as the protection of critical infrastructure, risk management, the response to cyber threats and the role of cybersecurity in the digital transformation of the public sector.