NATO’s largest cyber conference in Mons, Belgium Wednesday launches the NATO Industry Cyber (NCIP) Partnership with senior officials from the alliance, Estonia, Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
The NATO summit in Wales earlier this month endorsed the industry partnership and its implementation will “create win-win opportunities for both NATO and allies’ industry.”
The agenda includes a keynote address from Chris Gibson, director of the United Kingdom’s national Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), created in March. CERT leads in coordinating the management of national cyber security incidents and is the U.K. central point of contact for international counterparts.
Topics to be addressed include the evolving threat landscape, existing cyber partnerships with industry and lessons learned, enabling industry to deliver, and the skills and capability for a cyber world.
The summit declaration said “technological innovations and expertise from the private sector are crucial to enable NATO and allies to achieve the enhanced policy’s objectives.” The next steps will come through the NICP.
Among other things, the NICP is expected to improve cyber defense in NATO’s defense supply chain, improve sharing of best practices and expertise on preparedness and recovery, including technology trends, and provide specific focus and coherence on the cyber aspects.
NATO’s Communications and Information (NCI) Agency provides alliance wide IT services and state-of-the-art C4I capabilities including cyber and missile defense.