News

Cyber defenders from across the Alliance have a new community where they can exchange information, share best practices and work together in an encrypted workspace with secure video, voice, chat and information gathering capabilities. The community was launched today (12 February 2019) by the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA).

Senior officials from NATO met their counterparts from the European Union today (10 December) to take stock of recent activities and explore further areas for engagement on cyber defence.

The Heads of Allied Civil and Military, Intelligence and Security Organizations met at NATO Headquarters in Brussels on 29 November 2018 for talks on countering disinformation, cyber-attacks and traditional means of espionage. The conference was opened by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, together with the Romanian Chair of NATO’s Civilian Intelligence Committee and the Canadian Chair of the Military Intelligence Committee. The Allied Intelligence officials endorsed the framework for the establishment of a NATO Intelligence Academy, and they discussed together with Partner services and the European Union about emerging technologies that have an impact on intelligence and also about NATO – EU cooperation.

NATO’s flagship cyber defence exercise Cyber Coalition, one of the largest in the world, started on Tuesday (27 November 2018) in Tartu, Estonia. The exercise tests and trains cyber defenders from across the Alliance in their ability to defend NATO and national networks. Now in its eleventh year, Cyber Coalition involves around 700 participants from Allies, partners, industry and academia.

News headlines are replete with references to commercial hacks, data breaches, electronic fraud, the disruption of government service or critical infrastructure, intellectual property theft, exfiltration of national security secrets, and the potential of cyber destruction. These attacks affect citizens in many countries and cause enormous economic costs.

The Netherlands briefed NATO Defence Ministers today on the targeting of the offices of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague by a hostile cyber operation. The operation was carried out by the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service, but was disrupted by Dutch intelligence services in partnership with the UK. Moreover, the UK has identified the GRU as being behind a number of other cyber-attacks around the world. These have affected citizens in many countries, including Russia, and caused enormous economic costs.

Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday (2 June 2018) the NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller said that NATO is determined to strengthen its cyber-defences.

The North Atlantic Council, chaired by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, participated in the first Conference on the Cyber Defence Pledge in Paris on Tuesday (15 May 2018). Cyber defence is a priority for the Alliance, which deals with cyber-attacks on a daily basis and whose members have faced large-scale cyber-attacks over recent years.

NATO has won the world’s largest live-fire cyber exercise, Locked Shields 2018. After an intense competition from 23 to 26 April, NATO’s “Blue team” of 30 cyber defenders − led by the NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency − took the top prize in Tallinn, Estonia. French and Czech teams placed second and third, respectively. In total more than 1,000 experts from nearly 30 nations participated this year.

NATO cyber experts will test and train their ability to defend against cyber attacks in the largest international live-fire cyber defence exercise, Locked Shields (23 April – 27 April).