NATO to Establish New Cyber Center in Belgium

NATO will establish a new cyber center to better protect against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, the political and military alliance says.

The coming NATO Integrated Cyber Defense Center (NICC) will “enhance the protection of NATO and Allied networks and the use of cyberspace as an operational domain,” the organization announced on July 10^th.

Based at NATO’s strategic military headquarters at SHAPE in Belgium, NATO says the new center will bring together civilian and military personnel from across the NATO Enterprise, Allied countries and experts from industry.

Cyber threats directed against NATO and its member states have increased with the war in Ukraine, but the aggressors are not limited to Russia. NATO technologies and defense secrets are a prize target for any state not directly aligned with NATO or NATO-sympathetic nations.

“The Center will inform NATO military commanders on possible threats and vulnerabilities in cyberspace, including privately-owned civilian critical infrastructures necessary to support military activities,” NATO said.

Details on the structure and functions of the center will be developed in the coming months, and in NATO’s words, “will leverage advanced technologies to increase our situational awareness in cyberspace and enhance collective resilience and defense.”

John Hultquist, chief analyst at Mandiant Intelligence highlighted the primary cyber threats facing NATO ahead of its Washington DC summit earlier this month, coinciding with NATO’s 75th anniversary.

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