Lagging colossus or a mature cyber-alliance

Abstract

The article presents NATO as a self-aware and confident organisation that takes measured steps to enhance the cyber security of the Alliance as a whole. I reassert the notion that in spite of cyber defence not featuring on the top of the agenda in the early 2000s due to the effects of 9/11, the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the 2004 NATO enlargement process, after the 2007 attacks on Estonia and their post-mortem analysis the Alliance has been able to define priorities for this particular area and to significantly decrease the deficit by taking substantial but measured steps to rectify the situation it found itself in. The summits of 2014, 2016 and 2018 are identified as the most important in terms of NATO’s development in this area.

Keywords

• NATO; Cyber Defence; Cyber-Attacks; Capabilities; Cyber Security; Alliance; European Union.