NATO and the European Union (EU) signed a cyber defense information sharing agreement, NATO said Feb. 10.
This Technical Arrangement on Cyber Defense was concluded between NATO’s Computer Incident Response Capability (NCIRC) and the Computer Emergency Response Team of the European Union (CERT-EU). It provides a framework for exchanging information and sharing best practices between emergency response teams, NATO said.
“Together, NATO and the EU are stronger in defending against cyber-attacks. Intensified cooperation under this arrangement will allow us in a tangible way to better prevent cyber-attacks, but also our ability to predict, detect and respond to them,” Ambassador Sorin Ducaru, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, said in a statement.
“The signing of this arrangement is an important milestone in the strengthened cyber defence cooperation with NATO, which was also identified as one of the five priorities under the EU Cyber Defence Policy Framework,” Pedro Serrano, Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service, added.
NATO highlighted the main goal of the arrangement is to improve cyber defenses of both NATO and the EU through defense-related data exchanges.
“Information exchange is crucial to cyber defence. The Technical Arrangement covers both the exchange of information on specific cyber threats, and the sharing of best practices on technical procedures, configuration of networks, and partnership with industry,” Koen Gijsbers, General Manager of the NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency, said in a statement.
The NCIRC is part of the NCI, which is responsible for operating and defending NATO’s networks. The CERT-EU is a response team consisting of security experts from the main EU institutions (European Commission, General Secretariat of the Council, European Parlaiamrnt, Committee of the Regions, and Economic and Social Committee) and cooperates with member state CERTs.
NATO and the EU have 22 member states in common with Brussels hosting the leadership of both organizations.