"The move follows a series of Russian-linked hacking against Nato members and warnings from intelligence services of the growing threat from China." [23]
The preceding month the 13th NATO Cyber Defence Workshop was held in the Estonian capital of Tallinn. Speaking to the attendees, Defence Minister Jaak Aaviksoo said, "The robust national cyber security systems of Allies will be building blocks of a convincing NATO cyber defence capability." [24]
In June a four-day international conference "tackling the issue of cyber conflicts" was held at the NATO center in Estonia, which borders Russia. A keynote address was delivered by Melissa Hathaway, Cybersecurity Chief at the U.S. National Security Council.
Gloria Craig, Director for International Security Policy at Britain's Ministry of Defence, insisted on the urgency of expanded cyber warfare capacities, stating "As of now NATO is not prepared for a global cyberattack." [25]
Also in June, over "100 participants from leading global IT companies, the banking sector, the intelligence community, NATO, the EU and other institutions" attended the Cyber Defence in the Context of the New NATO Strategic Concept conference in Romania, which issued a report advocating that "NATO must accelerate efforts to respond to the danger of cyber attacks by protecting its own communications and command systems, helping Allies to improve their ability to prevent and recover from attacks, and developing an array of cyber defence capabilities...." [26]
In August NATO revealed that it has created a new Emerging Security Challenges Division "in order to deal with a growing range of non-traditional risks and challenges," including cyber operations. "The Emerging Security Challenges Division brings together various strands of expertise already existent in different parts of NATO Headquarters. Merging this work into one Division will give it greater focus and visibility." [27]
This month NATO's Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A) organized a conference in the Czech Republic, and the Alliance's advanced technologies procurement agency announced that "NATO is looking at beginning to invest up to 930 million euros ($1.3 billion) in 2011 and 2012 in multi-year projects to address key security challenges, such as cyber defence, support to NATO's Afghanistan effort and maritime security." [28]
A recent report divulged that in an interview with the Suddeutsche Zeitung NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he wants the Alliance to "extend the definition of attacks which trigger activation of the alliance to include cyber attacks" [30] as part of the new Strategic Concept to be endorsed at its summit next month.
In mid-September the Pentagon's second-in-command, William Lynn, was in Brussels to address the North Atlantic Council, NATO's highest governing body, as well as a defense-related think tank. [29]
Rallying Washington's military allies ahead of the summit in November, he said: "NATO has a nuclear shield, it is building a stronger and stronger [missile] defence shield, it needs a cyber shield as well....The Cold War concepts of shared warning apply in the 21st century to cyber security. Just as our air defences, our missile defences have been linked so too do our cyber defences need to be linked as well." [31]
As Lynn arrived in Brussels U.S. European Command was finishing the 15-day Combined Endeavor 2010 exercise, "the world's largest military communications and information systems exercise," at the Joint Multinational Simulations Center at the Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany, Altogether there were 1,400 participants from 40 countries:
The U.S., Germany, Austria, Afghanistan, Armenia, Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Britain, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Iraq, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Spain, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.
A U.S. European Command spokesman said of the event: "There's an 'endeavor' now in the Pacific, Pacific Endeavor. There is one in North America that uses South America and Canada to interconnect their network communication systems. This exercise that we do here in Grafenwoehr has branched-out world-wide, and every major command is launching their version of it." [32]
Since 2006 the U.S. has also led Africa Endeavor military exercises on the continent, "Africa's largest communications interoperability exercise," [33] first under U.S. European Command and recently under the new U.S. Africa Command. Africa Endeavor 2010 was held in Ghana in August with the participation of 36 African nations.
Worldwide is the correct word for the military network the Pentagon has built in recent years, as is evidenced by the nations participating under U.S. command in Combined Endeavor 2010 and Africa Endeavor 2010: 75 countries with Afghanistan and Iraq among them.
American-led multinational training exercises and war games on the same scale are routinely held throughout Europe, at the moment this year's second Joint Warrior exercise - Europe's largest war games - in, off the coast and over the skies of Scotland with 30 countries, 10,000 troops, 30 warships, three submarines and 21 air and helicopter units. Military maneuvers of comparable size occurred during the summer in the Asia-Pacific region when the U.S. led this year's 14-nation Rim of the Pacific war games, the world's largest multinational maritime exercise, with an estimated 22,000 troops, 34 ships, five submarines and over 100 aircraft involved. [34]
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