1ST NATO CYBER DEFENCE SMART DEFENCE PROJECTS CONFERENCE

CYBER DEFENCE PROJECTS

NATO SMART DEFENCE

PORTUGAL Military Academy, 09 April 2015

CONFERENCE SUMMARY
Excellences,
Admirals, Generals,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the pleasure and Im honored to present you a brief summary of the 1st
NATO Cyber Defence Smart Defence Projects Conference.
I have to confess that this is a challenging task since we had a complete day
of very substantive and challenging presentations and discussions.
So let me start by highlighting the opening speech of the Portuguese Chief of
Defence. General Artur Pina Monteiro, warmly welcomed all the participants
and presented the overall framework of this joint initiative that successfully
gathered the three Cyber Defence Smart Defence Projects and the Cyber
Defence and Cyber Security communities of Interest.
Those Projects are: the Multinational Cyber Defence Capability Development
(MN CD2) Project, led by the Netherlands; the Malware Information Sharing
Platform (MISP) Project, led by Belgium; and the Multinational Cyber Defence
Education and Training (MNCDE&T) Project, led by Portugal.
We had the opportunity to hear from Ambassador Mira Gomes, Ambassador
Sorin Ducaro and Dr Gregory Edwards their views on the Enhanced NATO
Policy on Cyber Defence.
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Addressing

the

new

NATOs

guidelines

for

capability

development,

Ambassador Mira Gomes briefly addressed Portugals main contributions to

the Alliance Cyber Defence capability development.
Ambassador Sorin Ducaru, highlighted at his presentation that the NATO
policy assigns a key role to multinational cooperation in what concerns Cyber
Defence capability development.
Dr Gregory Edwards provided us with some practical risk management
examples and how Smart Defence Projects could help to fulfill the existing gaps.
At the first Panel, specially dedicated to the NATO Cyber Defence Smart
Defence Projects we got a clear idea that NATOs Smart Defence calls for a
renewed cooperation culture and require an innovative approach in order to
better enhance the Alliances military capability development process.
In line with this idea, Cyber Defence related Projects (MNCD2, MISP and
MNCDE&T) presentations demonstrated that they are strongly committed to
join efforts and work together with industry and academia, building the
necessary bridges between international and national initiatives.
The Cyber Defence Panel provided the opportunity to present the initial
MNCDE&T Working Packages outputs.
Taking advantage of being the one that presents this Conference summary, as
the MNCDE&T Project Manager, I have to say that it has been an honor to
learn from and work closely with such a wonderful group that includes a lot of
skillful, experienced and knowledgeable persons.
Under this second panel, we also had the chance to see how MNCDE&T ongoing efforts could bridge with the CIS e-Learning Smart Defence Project and
could support the NCIS School future vision, as it was presented by Colonel
Silvio Monti, the School Commandant.
After lunch, we had two Parallel sessions related with Academia and Industry,
where it was clearly demonstrated their relevance and the important role they
should perform at the Cyber Security and Cyber Defence arenas.

In one hand, a close cooperation with industry could help to better understand
ICT trends and how those trends could shape future Cyber Defence
Competencies and Skills. On the other hand Academia could also help to fulfill
the existing Education and Training gaps, enhancing, in a very proactive
manner, the capability development process at both international and national
levels.
The last Panel of this conference was also of utmost importance to the
achievement of the aim and the fulfillment of the proposed objectives. The
CCD CoE and the EDA Project Team on Cyber Defence could be seen as two
good examples of how we can develop and reinforce, in a very pragmatic way,
international cooperation on Cyber Defence.
NATO Industry Cyber Partnership (NICP) and Lockheed Martin presentation
also showed how it is possible to promote an active engagement and
participation of industry and academia at NATOs and National levels.
This conference presented an unusual opportunity to explore new ideas and to
connect the dots outside the box, towards a more synergetic and pragmatic
approach between all the NATO Cyber Defence Smart Defence Projects.
At the end of this event, we should conclude that this conference was an
excellent opportunity to pave the way and to strengthen the links between the
Cyber Defence Community.
For each of the sessions we brought together a broad range of expertise
from the civilian and military communities, from the government and private
sector, from the national and International participants.
In the audience we also had a vast array of expertise, knowledge, and experience from which the conference and this summary benefited.
May the accomplishment of this Conferences objectives contribute to
strengthen national synergies and foster Allies cooperation towards a more
open, inclusive and secure cyberspace.
I wish you all a safe trip back home.
Lt Col Paulo Viegas Nunes, MNCDE&T Project Manager
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