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NATO has established an international Cyber Defence Management Authority to tackle cybercrime, while the US military is developing its own cyber-attack capabilities.

NATO has established an international centre to tackle cybercrime. The setting up of the Cyber Defence Management Authority (CDMA) shortly follows the US military announcement that it is enhancing its own Internet-based attack and defence protocols.

The CDMA is to be based in Estonia, where a wave of devastating co-ordinated attacks in April and May 2007 sparked a global reality-check on the future of digital security. "Estonia has experience in handling cyber attacks," said foreign minister Urmas Paet. The Centre will begin operations by the end of the year.

The CMDA will incorporate parts of NATO's current cyber-defence strategy with national and private initiatives, allowing it to co-ordinate responses to attacks if invited by national authorities, according to a NATO spokesperson. It will also develop and propose standards and procedures to prevent and deter attacks.

Meanwhile, U.S. military officials seeking to boost the nation's cyber-warfare capabilities are in the process of finding ways to launch virtual attacks on enemies.

In an interview on Friday, Lt. Gen. Robert J. Elder Jr., who heads the US Air Force's cyber-operations command, said that in the future the US military might rely on network warfare to disrupt an enemy's communications system, replacing the need for conventional weapons such as bombs. Rudimentary forms of cyber-warfare were used in the early days of the Iraq war in order to disrupt and shut down Iraqi communications systems but the potential to carry out cyber attacks has increased exponentially over the past five years.

The CMDA, however, will focus on defending the smooth running of international technology systems: "The keynote is defence, whether an attack comes from state, criminal or other sources," said the spokesman for NATO. Lt. Gen Elder also reassured the press that "the military is not going to tend to [use virtual strike capabilities] until you cross some line that constitutes an act of war".

Further reading

The China security threat The threat that China poses to IT security is making Western business executives nervous.

Cyber assault The threat to the UK’s critical IT infrastructure from cyber terrorists and activists is growing.

Find more stories in the Security & Continuity Briefing Room