On 1 October, NATO Sec Gen Anders Fogh Rasmussen
on the emerging security risks of piracy, cyber and climate change. Most of his
concerned the latter but he had this to say about responding to cyber threats:
Cyber security – our second topic today – is another case in point. Government and private companies launch cyber-attacks. Governments and industry suffer the consequences, in terms of lost revenue, lost data and lost services. And it will take cooperation between the public and private sectors to build real defences.
We also want to do better at cyber defence. NATO’s Cyber Defence Centre is a good step in the right direction. But the sustained, directed cyber attacks Estonia suffered a couple of years ago shows that the problem is much bigger than that. On both subjects, I’m very much looking forward to the discussions today.
But there is a fundamental difference between, one the one hand, piracy and cybersecurity, and climate change on the other. In the first two cases, the threat is very clear. We know what a pirate looks like – and no, I’m not thinking of someone with an eye patch and parrot on his shoulder. I’m thinking of someone well armed and ruthless. The kidnapping and ransom is taking place now. The costs to industry and Governments are easily calculated. And while implementing them might be difficult, we have a pretty good idea of what the right solutions might be.
The same is true of cyber defence. Attacks on industry and government websites and information systems are already a daily occurrence. Again, the costs are pretty easy to calculate. And while we are certainly able to do better, we have a general idea of the steps we should take. The challenge is figuring out how to do it.
Although referring principally to climate change, his concluding comments were also applicable to cyber:
This cannot be done by the defence people alone. It has to be a true team effort: civilian and military, public sector and private companies as well – all talking together, and working out mutually reinforcing efforts. That might seem unrealistic, to those of us who have been in politics a few years. No glacier is as imposing, no desert so impassable as the stovepipes within Governments. Then again, sailors never thought the mythical North-West Passage would ever open. But it is opening. Anything’s possible.
Rasmussen’s right – the door is opening (the North-West Passage metaphor, if it was meant as a metaphor, is a curious one; I thought it was a bad thing, what with the Arctic ice melting like billy-o ‘n all) but not very wide.
Cyber security – our second topic today – is another case in point. Government and private companies launch cyber-attacks. Governments and industry suffer the consequences, in terms of lost revenue, lost data and lost services. And it will take cooperation between the public and private sectors to build real defences.
We also want to do better at cyber defence. NATO’s Cyber Defence Centre is a good step in the right direction. But the sustained, directed cyber attacks Estonia suffered a couple of years ago shows that the problem is much bigger than that. On both subjects, I’m very much looking forward to the discussions today.
But there is a fundamental difference between, one the one hand, piracy and cybersecurity, and climate change on the other. In the first two cases, the threat is very clear. We know what a pirate looks like – and no, I’m not thinking of someone with an eye patch and parrot on his shoulder. I’m thinking of someone well armed and ruthless. The kidnapping and ransom is taking place now. The costs to industry and Governments are easily calculated. And while implementing them might be difficult, we have a pretty good idea of what the right solutions might be.
The same is true of cyber defence. Attacks on industry and government websites and information systems are already a daily occurrence. Again, the costs are pretty easy to calculate. And while we are certainly able to do better, we have a general idea of the steps we should take. The challenge is figuring out how to do it.
Although referring principally to climate change, his concluding comments were also applicable to cyber:
This cannot be done by the defence people alone. It has to be a true team effort: civilian and military, public sector and private companies as well – all talking together, and working out mutually reinforcing efforts. That might seem unrealistic, to those of us who have been in politics a few years. No glacier is as imposing, no desert so impassable as the stovepipes within Governments. Then again, sailors never thought the mythical North-West Passage would ever open. But it is opening. Anything’s possible.
Rasmussen’s right – the door is opening (the North-West Passage metaphor, if it was meant as a metaphor, is a curious one; I thought it was a bad thing, what with the Arctic ice melting like billy-o ‘n all) but not very wide.
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