On November 9-10 Vice Minister of National Defence Greta Monika Tučkutė took part in the first annual NATO Cyber Defence Conference in Berlin. The event brought together senior NATO officials to discuss the Alliance’s cyber defence and deterrence, stronger integrated political-military response to cyber threats and partnerships.
At a panel discussion with U.S., German, Polish and Spanish representatives, Vice Minister G. M. Tučkutė discussed lessons learned regarding the cyber aspect of the Russian war in Ukraine.
“The key lessons are prevention, capacity-building and closer collaboration with the Allies, partners and the private sector. Especially with Ukraine who invested in its cybersecurity ahead of the war thus mitigating the damage is was about to suffer. We look forward to NATO taking into account Ukraine’s lessons and a leading role in strengthening the instruments of cyber response and defence, as well as preventive measures,” said Vice Minister.
G. M. Tučkutė noted that the Alliance could make better use the Virtual Cyber Incident Support Capability (VCISC) agreed on in Vilnius to render support to the Allies and partners ahead and in the wake of crises. According to Vice Minister, it could use the EU Cyber Rapid Response Teams (CRRT) established by Lithuania’s initiative five years ago and operational since as an example for supporting member states, partners and collective military operations.
The high-level conference was attended by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Germany, Netherlands, Finland, Latvia and Albania, heads of cybersecurity institutions of NATO Allies, representatives of the public sector (Palo Alto, Microsoft, Mandiant, ESET) and academia.
The initiative to establish the first annual NATO’s cyber defence conference was agreed on at the Vilnius NATO Summit.
NATO leaders approved a new concept at the Vilnius Summit to ensure that the share of cyber defence in the overall NATO deterrence and defence architecture was strengthened and NATO’s awareness and cyber resilience was increased. The new NATO VCISC which accumulates Allied effort in response to large-scale cyber incidents was also launched and tested at the NATO Summit in Vilnius.
