http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?i=4483043&c=EUR&s=TOP
Defense News February 2, 2010 NATO Chief: Nations Must Unite On Cyber Warfare By ANTONIE BOESSENKOOL SAN DIEGO: Given attacks on computer networks in Estonia, Georgia, Latvia and Lithuania in the past several years, the definition of protections for NATO members should be expanded, the NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe said Feb. 2. The likelihood that the next conflict will start with a cyber attack rather than a physical attack highlights the importance of changing the treaty's definitions, Adm. James Stavridis said at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association conference. Article 5 of the NATO alliance says that an attack on any member will be considered an attack on all NATO members. But the definition of what constitutes an attack doesn't include cyber warfare, which didn't exist when the alliance was formed. NATO nations will have to work together to deflect and combat cyber attacks, and those relationships will be complex and difficult, he said. "Every nation has its own law enforcement, its own approach to privacy, its own system and mores, its own networks, its own technologies," said Stavridis, also head of U.S. European Command. "I am working very hard to encourage the alliance, in my role as Supreme Allied Commander … to grapple with these hard issues in cyber. "In NATO … we need to talk about what defines an attack. In a country like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, all NATO members, what defines an attack? I believe it is more likely that an attack will come not off a bomb rack on an aircraft, but as electrons moving down a fiber optic cable. So this is a very real and germane part of this challenge that we face in the cyber war." NATO has taken the first step toward making cyber warfare combat an international effort by standing up the Cooperative Cyber Defence Center of Excellence in 2008 in Estonia, but facing cyber threats will require cooperation among U.S. government agencies, and between governments and industry as well, Stavridis said. As for where industry can play a role, he said DoD is interested in technologies in telemedicine, facial recognition systems and terrain mapping, as examples. "Many of you are already engaged on the industry side of this," Stavridis told the audience of defense industry representatives and military members. "You need to help us find the technologies that will permit us to dial in so that we can do the open, strategic connecting we need to do and still protect our systems." =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato Blog site: http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/ To subscribe, send an e-mail to: rwroz...@yahoo.com or stopnato-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Daily digest option available. ==============================
