For over a decade, NATO has greatly improved its cyber capabilities. In a new issue brief, “NATO’s Cyber Capabilities: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow,” Jason Healey, director, and Klara Tothova Jordan, assistant director of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative in the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council, argue that there is still much that NATO can and should do to reinforce the Alliance’s cyber defenses.
The Alliance implemented various policies since it experienced its first major cyberattack in 1999, during Operation Allied Force. For example, the Policy on Cyber Defense, adopted in 2008 and updated in 2011, helped strengthen NATO’s focus on cyber issues. The current NATO cyber defense policy gives the Alliance a strong boost but remains incomplete. By focusing future policy on a number of areas of importance such as support to allies beyond the currently available rapid reaction teams, this gap can be filled. The authors provide policy recommendations that decision-makers should focus on during the upcoming NATO Summit in Wales and in the years ahead.