Story highlights NATO chief says cyberattacks can be as dangerous as an armed attack

President-elect Donald Trump called the military alliance obsolete

Washington (CNN) NATO warded off 500 cyberattacks each month in 2016, according to statistics compiled by the military alliance.

"Our systems register over 500 million suspicious cyber events each day," NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu told CNN Thursday.

She added that in 2016, NATO was subjected to an average of 500 cyberattacks per month that merited some kind of response, "an increase of roughly 60% over 2015."

"Foreign governments, criminals and terrorists can all be the source of cyberattacks, and attribution can be difficult," Lungescu said. "But of course, nations have the largest resources in the cyber field, and they are responsible for the majority of targeted attacks against NATO networks."

President-elect Donald Trump called the military alliance obsolete in an interview with British and German media that was published on Sunday.

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