NATO’s Digital Shield Against Cyber Threats

In its invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has extensively employed electronic warfare, including jamming GPS signals and satellite-based navigation systems. The Estonian minister of foreign affairs, Margus Tsahkna, said Russia’s hybrid warfare has forced the country’s largest airport to close, while pointing out that the Kremlin’s jamming also impacts civilian infrastructure in neighboring Latvia, Lithuania, and sites in Finland, Poland, and Germany.

The 2024 NATO Summit highlighted the extent to which cyber-attacks have become a feature of modern conflict and expressed an intention to “strengthen and secure allied networks, improve situational awareness, heighten cooperation and interoperability,” and implement cyberspace as an operational domain. NATO allies have sufficient cyber and related capabilities to prevent, respond to, or protect from a cyberattack, which brings the alliance and its individual member nations into “uncharted waters.” As Russia, China, and other adversaries burrow deeper into cyberspace’s critical infrastructure, the West’s security and resilience alliance must deepen its own offensive-defensive capabilities as dual-use and unconventional presence by adversaries unfold.

The rapid evolution of digital technologies has profoundly transformed our societies, our economies, and is having a significant impact on modern warfare. NATO’s Digital Transformation Implementation Strategy will help address the need for technological and cultural transformation, leveraging data and artificial intelligence to drive this digital transformation.

Supremacy on the battlefield requires dominating all domains, combined with the orchestration of military activities, synchronization of non-military activities, and the delivery of converging effects at the speed of relevance. The full realisation of Multi-Domain Operations (MDO), enabled by a Digital Backbone that facilitates seamless Command and Control (C2) across all domains, will be achieved by the following foundational elements: Enhancing Situational Awareness, Orchestrating Operational Effects, Embedding Risk Management and Digital Mission Assurance, Adopting New Capabilities, Aggregating Data, Bolstering Security and Protection of Data. MDO implementation will build upon the ongoing planning efforts towards the implementation of the Concept for the Deterrence and Defence of the Euro-Atlantic Area (DDA).

The development of NATO’s Digital Backbone will be aligned with the NATO 2030 initiative relevant key requirements areas. The Alliance needs data-centric, inter-connected systems, which can integrate easily and securely across the various organizational and national boundaries, in peacetime as well as during missions and operations. This implies that the Digital Backbone will have to provide the technical means to ensure universal connectivity and data transport not just across the traditional domains of operations (Maritime, Land and Air), but also for the new domains of Space and Cyberspace, including Allies and Partners as described in the Alliance Concept for MDO. The Digital Backbone integrates capabilities, connects sensors, effectors and decision makers across military and political spheres, driving integration and interoperability across domains and platforms, and enabling seamless collaboration. It also hosts the Data Fabric that enables users and services to access and process data rapidly and securely at every level. The Digital Backbone’s key components include federated networks, cloud computing, and a design based on a service-oriented architecture paradigm.

The Department of State will build and extend digital solidarity to partners across the globe. The United States recognizes the need to work together to align approaches to data and digital governance and to promote the research, development, and deployment of critical and emerging technologies. The United States seeks to be the partner of choice in improving cybersecurity, building resilience, responding to, and recovering from malicious cyber activity. Digital solidarity aims to connect people and information like never before, fostering a more inclusive, secure, prosperous, rights-respecting, safe, and equitable world.