The Birth of NATO’s Cyber Defence

This tech and meet session by Martin De Pauw at HoWest was all about the start of the cyber security division at NATO. Martin De Pauw has an impressive backstory going back in time. He first started his career in F16 avionics, later in his life he transitioned into a more IT technical side where he got the opportunity to co-create cyberspace in NATO context.

During his session he took us back to 2016, the year when NATO officially recognized cyberspace as a domain of operations. He told us about how he was approached by NATO headquarters about the project to help create this division within the organization.

Despite the obstacles faced such as having to align with different countries, the project was and is to this day still a success as the cyberspace operational domain is playing an important role in many modern day conflicts as well. We see the rise of many cyber threats by malicious actors backed by countries and thanks to this division we have a means to limit damages on NATO governed nations.

Another important factor included in strengthening our defense in the cyberspace is having trust between different teams and countries. Creating a generalized channel for nations to exchange information between each other to help defend against threats is a big help in the fight against cybercrime and cyber warfare.

It was a big shock for me to learn that NATO only recognized cyberspace as an operational domain in 2016 because my interest in IT doesn’t go that far back but I am glad to see that they have made many improvements on the cyberspace in general by recognizing it. Despite being a very theoretical session I personally found this a very interesting topic because many of the standards we see today are built on this centralized entity. Learning more about the history of one of the world leaders in cyber defense will in my opinion only bring upside to my career because I get to know the struggle of creating a viable plan of action.

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