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Story URL: http://www.silicon.com/publicsector/0,3800010403,39184605,00.htm

Nato allies form cyber defence command
Waging war on online attacks

By Nick Heath

Published: Tuesday 08 April 2008

Nato is creating a cyber command to protect its allies against crippling online attacks on national infrastructure.

The Cyber Defence Management Authority (CDMA) will co-ordinate cyber defence among Nato allies after its formation was backed by members at the Nato summit in Bucharest last week.

Security from A to Z

Click on the links below to find out more...

A is for Antivirus
B is for Botnets
C is for CMA
D is for DDoS
E is for Extradition
F is for Federated identity
G is for Google
H is for Hackers
I is for IM
J is for Jaschan (Sven)
K is for Kids
L is for Love Bug
M is for Microsoft
N is for Neologisms
O is for Orange
P is for Passwords
Q is for Questions
R is for Rootkits
S is for Spyware
T is for Two-factor authentication
U is for USB sticks/devices
V is for Virus variants
W is for Wi-fi
X is for OS X
Y is for You
Z is for Zero-day

Nato allies have pledged to help each other deal with major attacks similar to the distributed denial of service attack that took down key banking and state systems in Estonia in 2007.

It is a shift away from Nato's policy of mainly focusing on the defence of its own internal systems using the Nato Computer Incident Response Capability (NRIC).

At its helm is expected to be Major General Georges D'hollander, who leads the Nato agency dealing with cyber defence.

The Brussels-based CDMA will strengthen nation states cyber defences by reinforcing the best ways to protect national systems and forging new policies to deal with future threats.

A Centre of Excellence set up in Estonia will train Nato's extensive civilian and military staff in cyber defence.

A Nato spokesman told silicon.com: "It has become clear that the challenge we face has become quite significant and needs a more comprehensive approach. We need to be ahead of the bad guys, the threat can come from many sources, cyber crime, cyber terrorism or state activity."

The NRIC will continue to develop its ability to handle attacks on Nato's own systems.