On January 23rd, Minister of Defence Jaak Aaviksoo attended a roundtable on cyber security, in Brussels, convened by the United States European Command, and met with William J. Lynn, the United States Deputy Secretary of Defence.
The roundtable, convened by Admiral James Stavridis, Commander of U.S. European Command, was also attended by Gabor Iklody, NATO’s Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, and cyber defence experts from the public and private sectors of NATO member countries, including Microsoft, McAfee, Symantec, and IBM. The main topic of discussion involved developments in cyber security following the NATO Lisbon Summit.
According to Minister of Defence Jaak Aaviksoo, it became clear following the NATO Lisbon Summit that cyber security is becoming one of the most serious security issues for all developed countries.
”Today's roundtable also unanimously confirmed our two firm convictions. Firstly, NATO must assume greater responsibility in ensuring cyber security in the fields posing a national security risk. Such fields are telecommunications, energy, transportation and financial services, and this problem cannot be left solely to private enterprisers to handle. And secondly – without mutually beneficial co-operation between the state and private sector, the issues of cyber security cannot be solved. We need to urgently find suitable forms of co-operation,” Aaviksoo said.
At a bilateral meeting with Lynn, the United States Deputy Secretary of Defence, increasing the role of the NATO Cyber Defence Centre in Tallinn was discussed, especially in view of the U.S. officially joining the Centre. ”I was reassured once again that our Cyber Defence Centre has a lot to offer to the Allies, and their interest in expanding the work of the Centre is increasing,” Aaviksoo said.