Written question asked by Claire Curtis-Thomas (Labour) on Wednesday, 22 October 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 27 October 2008. It was answered by Bob Ainsworth (Labour) on Monday, 3 November 2008 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Information Warfare

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the NATO (a) cyber threat assessment and (b) cyber defence concept.

Answer: NATO plans to have an operational cyber threat assessment cell by 2010 and this cell will produce NATO cyber Threat Assessments from that date.The NATO cyber defence concept was developed following the production of a cyber defence policy paper by the USA. The UK was a co-signatory to this paper, as were France and Estonia. The NATO cyber defence policy and the cyber defence concept were approved by the North Atlantic Council (NAC) earlier this year. The NATO Cyber Defence Management Authority (CDMA) was also given approval by the NAC earlier this year and the concept of operations for the CDMA are soon to be approved. The MoD assisted in the development of these documents through their drafting process to final version.

Secondary information