NATO 'Kills Two Birds With One Stone' by Signing Deal With Microsoft

On Monday, the US IT giant signed a GSP agreement with NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency. According to Microsoft, GSP was designed to help governments assess and protect existing systems, and create, deploy, and maintain more secure infrastructure, as well as foster partnership and trust.

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Alexander Mosesov — NATO benefits twice by signing onto Microsoft's Government Security Program (GSP), a NATO official told Sputnik on Thursday.

“For NATO, the added value is two-fold. First, we get early warning about issues like software problems, bugs, network problems. And second, we can respond faster,” the official said.

He added that in the area of cybersecurity, information-exchange, "particularly early warning by vendors of detected vulnerabilities in either their or others products is important and the GSP agreement will contribute to this."

According to Microsoft, at the moment the company has GSP agreements with more than 40 agencies from over 25 states.

With the GSP agreement, NATO will now have access to technical information and documentation about Microsoft products and services, as well as “information about Internet safety, threat intelligence, online training tools and guidance to help mitigate the effects of cyberattacks across the region,” the official concluded.