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1ST NATO CYBER DEFENCE SMART DEFENCE PROJECTS’ CONFERENCE

PORTUGAL – Military Academy, 09 April 2015

CONFERENCE SUMMARY

Excellences,

Admirals, Generals,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have the pleasure and I’m honored to present you a brief summary of the 1st

NATO Cyber Defence Smart Defence Projects Conference.

I have to confess that this is a challenging task since we had a complete day

of very substantive and challenging presentations and discussions.

So let me start by highlighting the opening speech of the Portuguese Chief of

Defence. General Artur Pina Monteiro, warmly welcomed all the participants

and presented the overall framework of this joint initiative that successfully

gathered the three Cyber Defence Smart Defence Projects and the Cyber

Defence and Cyber Security communities of Interest.

Those Projects are: the Multinational Cyber Defence Capability Development

(MN CD2) Project, led by the Netherlands; the Malware Information Sharing

Platform (MISP) Project, led by Belgium; and the Multinational Cyber Defence

Education and Training (MNCDE&T) Project, led by Portugal.

We had the opportunity to hear from Ambassador Mira Gomes, Ambassador

Sorin Ducaro and Dr Gregory Edwards their views on the Enhanced NATO

Policy on Cyber Defence.

NATO SMART DEFENCE

CYBER DEFENCE PROJECTS

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Addressing the new NATO’s guidelines for capability development,

Ambassador Mira Gomes briefly addressed Portugal’s main contributions to

the Alliance Cyber Defence capability development.

Ambassador Sorin Ducaru, highlighted at his presentation that the NATO

policy assigns a key role to multinational cooperation in what concerns Cyber

Defence capability development.

Dr Gregory Edwards provided us with some practical risk management

examples and how Smart Defence Projects could help to fulfill the existing gaps.

At the first Panel, specially dedicated to the NATO Cyber Defence Smart

Defence Projects we got a clear idea that NATO’s Smart Defence calls for a

renewed cooperation culture and require an innovative approach in order to

better enhance the Alliance’s military capability development process.

In line with this idea, Cyber Defence related Projects (MNCD2, MISP and

MNCDE&T) presentations demonstrated that they are strongly committed to

join efforts and work together with industry and academia, building the

necessary bridges between international and national initiatives.

The Cyber Defence Panel provided the opportunity to present the initial

MNCDE&T Working Packages outputs.

Taking advantage of being the one that presents this Conference summary, as

the MNCDE&T Project Manager, I have to say that it has been an honor to

learn from and work closely with such a wonderful group that includes a lot of

skillful, experienced and knowledgeable persons.

Under this second panel, we also had the chance to see how MNCDE&T on-

going efforts could bridge with the CIS e-Learning Smart Defence Project and

could support the NCIS School future vision, as it was presented by Colonel

Silvio Monti, the School Commandant.

After lunch, we had two Parallel sessions related with Academia and Industry,

where it was clearly demonstrated their relevance and the important role they

should perform at the Cyber Security and Cyber Defence arenas.

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In one hand, a close cooperation with industry could help to better understand

ICT trends and how those trends could shape future Cyber Defence

Competencies and Skills. On the other hand Academia could also help to fulfill

the existing Education and Training gaps, enhancing, in a very proactive

manner, the capability development process at both international and national

levels.

The last Panel of this conference was also of utmost importance to the

achievement of the aim and the fulfillment of the proposed objectives. The

CCD CoE and the EDA Project Team on Cyber Defence could be seen as two

good examples of how we can develop and reinforce, in a very pragmatic way,

international cooperation on Cyber Defence.

NATO Industry Cyber Partnership (NICP) and Lockheed Martin presentation

also showed how it is possible to promote an active engagement and

participation of industry and academia at NATO’s and National levels.

This conference presented an unusual opportunity to explore new ideas and to

connect the dots outside the box, towards a more synergetic and pragmatic

approach between all the NATO Cyber Defence Smart Defence Projects.

At the end of this event, we should conclude that this conference was an

excellent opportunity to pave the way and to strengthen the links between the

Cyber Defence Community.

For each of the sessions we brought together a broad range of expertise –

from the civilian and military communities, from the government and private

sector, from the national and International participants.

In the audience we also had a vast array of expertise, knowledge, and expe-

rience from which the conference and this summary benefited.

May the accomplishment of this Conference’s objectives contribute to

strengthen national synergies and foster Allies´ cooperation towards a more

open, inclusive and secure cyberspace.

I wish you all a safe trip back home.

Lt Col Paulo Viegas Nunes, MNCDE&T Project Manager