| Küberkaitse Kompetentsikeskus Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence |
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|---|---|
| Located in Tallinn, Estonia | |
| Type | NATO Centre of Excellence |
| Built | 2008 |
| Controlled by | CCD COE Steering Committee |
CCDCOE, officially the Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (Estonian: K5 or Küberkaitse Kompetentsikeskus) is one of NATO Centres of Excellence, located in Tallinn, Estonia.
The CCDCOE was established in the wake of the 2007 cyberattacks on Estonia and the Bronze Night events.
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In 2003, prior to the country’s official accession to NATO, Estonia proposed the creation of a “cyber excellence center”. The 2006 Riga summit listed possible cyber attacks among the asymmetric threats to the common security and acknowledged the need for programs to protect information systems over the long term. The cyber attacks on Estonia in 2007 highlighted for the first time the potential vulnerability of any NATO countries, their institutions and societies, and even NATO itself to disruption or penetration of their information and communications systems.
Estonia’s proposals for a NATO cyber excellence center received strong support from the alliance’s Secretary-General “Jaap” de Hoop Scheffer. NATO completed an assessment of the situation, partly in light of Estonia’s experience, in October 2007, and approved a NATO policy on cyber defense in January 2008. NATO’s summit communiqué in Bucharest in April announced NATO’s readiness to “provide a capability to assist allied nations, upon request, to counter a cyber attack”.
| “ | The need for a cyber-defence centre to be opened today is compelling. It will help NATO defy and successfully counter the threats in this area. | ” |
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—General James Mattis in Brussels May 14 2008.[1] |
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The Cyber Defense Center in Tallinn is one of 15 accredited [2] Centres of Excellence (COEs), for training on technically sophisticated aspects of NATO operations. It is being funded nationally and multi-nationally as these centers are closely linked with Allied Command Transformation and promote the alliance-approved transformation goals.
The main agenda of the facility is to:
The centre has also other responsibilities which include:
As Founding Nations, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Spain came together to establish the Centre in 2008.[3] The Centre received full accreditation by NATO and attained the status of International Military Organisation on the 28th of October, 2008.
The CCD COE is open to all NATO nations. In addition, CCD COE can establish cooperative relations with non-NATO nations, universities, research institutions, and businesses as Contributing Participants.
The Centre conducts research and training on cyber security and includes a staff of approximately 30 persons.[4]
There are currently 10 countries involved within the centre [5]:
Estonia has also shown interest in Iceland joining the Cyber Defence Centre.[6]
Turkey has announced its intent to join in the near future.[7]