NATO Cybersecurity: A Roadmap to Resilience

Keeping Pace with an Evolving Threat

Today NATO faces ongoing efforts from antagonists, including non-state actors, to intimidate and destabilize member states through cyber-attacks. The notion of cyber warfare is not new, but the scale, speed, and intensity of the challenge demands a new approach toward the preparation, deterence, and defense against these threats. One important innovation that cyber activities provide an adversary is ambiguity, both of intent and attribution. The source of cyber aggression is not easy to identify and requires advanced technological capabilities that only a few member states in NATO possess. Cyber aggression is even more difficult to prove publicly because laws and regulations in cyberspace are still incomplete. For NATO, the ambiguity of cyber campaigns present challenges vis-à-vis action that needs to be collectively addressed across the political, military, civilian, and technological spectrum. The following recommendations are designed to strengthen NATO resilience in cyberspace.