MOSCOW, November 18 (Sputnik) — NATO has launched its largest ever international cyber defense exercise, which is set to last three days and will involve more than 400 experts from member states and partner nations, the alliance said Tuesday.
“This exercise will test our systems to make sure that NATO keeps pace with that evolving threat and that the skills and expertise of our cyber specialists are fully up to the task,” Ambassador Sorin Ducaru, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, was cited as saying on the alliance’s official website.
“Among the priorities highlighted in the Enhanced NATO Policy on Cyber Defence, endorsed at the Wales Summit, is training and exercises,” Ducaru added.
The “Cyber Coalition 2014” is the seventh annual cyber defense exercise carried out by the alliance. The ongoing exercise is the largest ever, NATO said, with “400 technical, government and cyber experts operating from dozens of locations” and “representatives from academia and industry” having been invited as observers for the first time.
The threat of cyberattacks was on the agenda of the Wales summit in September and “Allies agreed that cyberattacks can reach a threshold that threatens national and Euro-Atlantic prosperity, security, and stability” and reaffirmed that cyber defense was a part of the alliance’s "core task of collective defense", NATO informed.
