Leonardo and NCI Agency extend NATO cyber protection service to additional HQs on budget and to schedule

October 19, 2017

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Leonardo, working in partnership with the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency), has completed the rollout of its cyber monitoring and response service to a number of additional NATO headquarters on time and on budget. The news was announced today at the NATO Information Assurance Symposium (NIAS’17) event in Mons, Belgium.

The service, called NATO Cyber Incident Response Capability – Full Operational Capability (NCIRC-FOC), sees a combined Leonardo and NCI Agency staff of around 200 computer security experts provide a rapid-response cyber defence capability, around the clock, to more than 70,000 NATO users around the world. The expansion contract, awarded in August 2015, saw the partners extend this proven service to a number of newly-opened European headquarters. This was part of a continual improvement of NATO’s cyber defence capabilities called for in the Alliance’s Cyber Defence Action Plan.

NCIRC covers NATO’s cyber protection at all levels from individual portable devices up to entire networks at HQs such as NATO Allied Air Command. The teams of specialists which deliver the service are able to detect and respond to increasingly commonplace, sophisticated, and potentially-damaging cyber threats. As well as defending headquarters, NCIRC has also successfully protected the two most recent NATO summits in 2014 and 2016.

NCIRC is designed to evolve as the cyber battlefield changes. Leonardo and its technology partners look forward to the continued development of the NCIRC FOC capability over the coming years. The company continues to invest in the new technology and the critical skills required to defend NATO from the growing cyber threat.

In addition to NATO headquarters, Leonardo also provides cyber security services for individual nation states, large companies and financial institutions. In the UK and Italy, Leonardo provides support directly to governments and government agencies, as well as commercial customers including large defence companies. Outside of Europe, Leonardo provides cyber security services in the Gulf and South-East Asia for both government and industry customers.

Source : Leonardo, A Finmeccanica Company