Here are five questions for him during the Luxembourg Cybersecurity Week.
This week Luxembourg is hosting the Cyber Security Week, why is it important to raise awareness on this global challenge?
Cyber threats are growing, in size and complexity. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated business digitalisation and increased the adoption of new technologies, which brings new vulnerabilities in the cyber domain that have business consequences. In parallel, we are facing a shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals, with over four million specialists needed worldwide.
This is why cyber security awareness is very important; firstly, to educate about cyber threats and to raise awareness of the sensitivity to data and systems. This is very important in an environment like NSPA. Secondly, effective awareness will allow government, industry and academia to attract new professionals who might want dedicate time to be deep experts, helping to reduce the skill gap in this domain.
In this sense, Luxembourg's Cyber Security Week is a great occasion to promote it. Our Agency is headquartered in Luxembourg, so we rely on connectivity through the country and this is why a collaboration was established between the Directorate of Defence and NSPA, developing a strategic cooperation to support each other in the development of cyber capabilities and skills.
How is NSPA taking part on the week activities?
This year we are supporting one particular activity, called Capture the Flag (CTF) event. It is a training exercise where cyber teams compete to solve complex cyber challenges, simulating a real cyber crisis scenario.
NSPA participates in two separate aspects of this exercise. We operate and support the Luxembourg Cyber Range (the IT infrastructure 'battlespace') and NSPA employees are part of a joint team with the Luxembourg Governmental Computer Emergency Response Team (GovCERT) competing to solve the challenge.
How is NSPA adapting to the evolving cyber threat landscape?
As a NATO Agency, we comply with NATO's overall cyber security policy and approach. We work to intensively to build resilient networks to protect our IT infrastructure from malicious treats.
Prevention is also key. NSPA experts are linked to various cyber teams defending NATO's networks around the clock, preventing intrusions, detecting analyses and sharing information on malware, preventing data loss, and conducting computer forensics and other assessments.
We all have a role to play in cyber security. It is important to be fully aware of the threats, and to understand how to recognise them and how to respond to them.
NSPA is collaborating in a number of projects in the cyber domain with Luxembourg Directorate of Defence, can you expand a bit on these projects?
NSPA has worked for many years with Luxembourg on different initiatives to adapt to the evolving threat landscape and develop robust cyber defence capabilities. Established in the Luxembourg Government's Cyber Defence Strategy, one of these capabilities is the Cyber Range.
Our Agency has recently delivered and hosts an IT-system simulation platform that allows a highly capable training environment, preparing cyber teams to protect better against potential cyber threats.
Through the platform, Luxembourg and NSPA will continue sharing knowledge and capabilities to better deter and fight potential threats. Luxembourg is also making available the Cyber Range for NATO Allies, Luxembourg's partners and authorities, critical infrastructure operators and academia. This capability is also key to face the shortage of experts, helping to motivate and train more experts in cyber security.
As Luxembourg further develops its Cyber Defence Strategy with additional capabilities, NSPA will continue to support and help strengthening our Host Nation cyber security ecosystem.