NATO signs huge cyber defense contract

Rome-base Finmecchanica and the Northrup Grumman Corporation have been awarded a 58 million Euro ($76 million) deal for upgrading NATO’s cyber defense capabilities.

The deal requires of them to make the NATO Computer Incident Response Capability (NCIRC) achieve full operational capability by the end of 2012, i.e. “to provide a central management capability in Mons, Belgium, a remote connection at NATO Headquarters; the provision of mobile kits for rapid reaction teams; the deployment of cyber defence sensors at multiple sites; and the development, in spirals, of a Cyber Defence Decision Support System, providing situational awareness, dynamic risk assessment and management.”

The NCIRC has been operational since the end of 2005, and it focuses on detecting and responding to cyber incidents as they happen.

It allows NATO to have an overview of the computer networks and systems of some 50 sites of critical importance to the Alliance, and it is in direct contact with its equivalents among individual member nations.