The combined war against Cyber attacks – first signs

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Experts say that the Cyber attacks on Israel will grow in number and severity. There are first signs of cooperation with other countries on how to protect critical assets from such massive attacks.

In the meantime defense chiefs from across NATO have begun to work on how to protect member countries from cyber attack.

The National Security website reports that  although NATO has been working for a while on protecting its own networks (meaning the in-house systems NATO relies on for everyday functions) from cyber attacks, it hasn’t come up with any plans to defend its member states from cyber attack.

To help remedy this, NATO defense chiefs have recently discussed a U.S.-proposed “cyber work plan” aimed at “breaking through policy impasses” to get the alliance in a “much better position” to protect its member countries from cyber attacks.

The aim is to find ways to figure out what roles and responsibilities NATO, the European Union, and all the national governments and private sector organizations that are involved in NATO and the EU have in defending against cyber threats.

This could mean figuring out which law enforcement agencies would respond to criminal cyber attacks against alliance members; which government agencies would respond to cyber attacks by other countries; how the various government agencies within NATO would collaborate to defeat cyber threats; and how major corporations that provide critical services to the public would be protected from crippling cyber attacks.

During a speech at Kings College in London last month, outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said NATO is not adequately prepared to respond to cyber attacks against its member countries. “I urge in the coming year that NATO ministers hold a session to closely examine how the alliance can bolster its defensive cyber operational capabilities,” he said.