Report: NATO needs more cyber capabilities

Government officials have warned that cyberattacks are rapidly becoming one of the greatest threats to the United States and its allies, but a new report says the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is still playing catch up.

"NATO's central missions of collective defense and cooperative security must be as effective in cyberspace as they are in the other domains of air, land, sea, and space," concluded a report released by the Atlantic Council. While NATO enacted a new cyberdefense policy in June, the alliance now needs to focus on a core set of priorities to make cybersecurity efforts more effective, the report said. NATO further expanded its cyber programs after cyberattacks against Estonia in 2007. It must continue that effort to repeatedly update and reinvent its cyber policies and capabilities, Jason Healey, director of the Atlantic Council's Cyber Statecraft Initiative, said at a panel discussion on Monday. But "NATO must be responsible for its own networks before looking to protect member states," said Healey, who helped author the report. The report's other recommendations include developing standards and minimum levels of cybersecurity for member states; collaboration with the private sector; and treating cybersecurity as a national-security policy problem, not just a technical issue.