From: Atlantic Council

Jorge Benitez

From Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO:  NATO has continued to implement its new cyber defence policy through a  comprehensive and ambitious action plan launched in October 2011. In  the spring of 2012, NATO concluded an important contract for 58 million  Euros with a consortium of private companies to significantly upgrade  its unique operational cyber defence capability, the NATO Computer  Incident Response Capability (NCIRC).

When this project is completed in the autumn of 2013 and all NATO  networks are brought under centralised protection, NATO’s ability to  defend its military and civilian networks against all types of intrusion  and attack will be greatly enhanced. NATO will also be in a better  position to assist Allies and partners to detect, defend against and  recover from cyber attacks, and to deploy Rapid Reaction Teams upon  request. To further enhance its cyber defence capabilities, NATO  established a cyber threat assessment cell and held its first full-scale  crisis management exercise based on a cyber defence scenario. Another  annual exercise, known as “Cyber Coalition”, was also held. It involved  both Allies and partners, and proved its worth in testing incident  response and crisis management procedures.