During her visit to Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) H.E. Ambassador Hélène Duchêne, French Permanent Representative to NATO visited the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) Computer Incident Response Capability (NCIRC) Technical Centre in Mons, Belgium.
She received a briefing on how the Agency provides centralized and round-the-clock cyber defence support to various NATO sites. During the demonstrations by Agency's Cyber Security professionals, the Ambassador was shown how the Agency handles and reports incidents, and disseminates important incident-related information to system/security management and users.
H.E. Ambassador Duchêne found the visit to the Agency's Cyber Operations Centre very valuable: "I am impressed by the dedication and expertise of the professional staff who ensures the defence of NATO's network on 24/7 basis. Seeing first-hand what NCIRC Technical Centre does to ensure the integrity of our cyber space is impressive."
Retaining NATO's technological edge
Cyber-attacks are becoming more intense, complex and are increasing in their level of sophistication. An attack can range from the misappropriation of someone's official social media accounts to loss of life from degraded command and control. In light of this, Heads of State and Government at the Warsaw Summit in July 2016 endorsed an Enhanced Cyber Defence Policy, and recognized cyberspace as an operational domain.
Strengthening national cyber defences is critical and France plays an important part in ensuring global cyber space stability through its own cyber capabilities, bilateral cooperation with member states and multilateral cooperation with EU and NATO as well as other key organizations. France's Cyber Security strategy places an important emphasis on innovation to ensure the Alliance retains its technological edge. Both H.E. Ambassador Duchêne and Mr Gijsbers agreed that innovation is fundamental for development of next generation cyber capabilities.
"The NCI Agency defends NATO's networks 24/7 in an era where the entire globe is connected through cyberspace. In order to keep NATO's technological edge, innovation in cyber security and agile procurement of cyber defences is key in the evolving security landscape," said Koen Gijsbers, General Manager of the NCI Agency.