NATO members agree to new cyber defense policy

The United States and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization nations endorsed a new cyber defense policy Monday as part of the NATO summit in Brussels.

“Reaffirming NATO’s defensive mandate, the Alliance is determined to employ the full range of capabilities at all times to actively deter, defend against, and counter the full spectrum of cyber threats, including those conducted as part of hybrid campaigns, in accordance with international law,” the Brussels Summit Communique released Monday by NATO read.

As part of the new policy, a decision to invoke Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which founded NATO, would be taken on a “case-by-case basis” involving cyberattacks on NATO members.

Article 5 states that if a NATO allied nation is attacked, other members would consider it an attack against all NATO nations and consider actions to respond.

“Allies recognise that the impact of significant malicious cumulative cyber activities might, in certain circumstances, be considered as amounting to an armed attack,” the communique read.

President Biden told reporters Monday that this was NATO’s first new iteration of the policy in the past seven years, and stressed it will “improve the collective ability to defend against counter threats from state and non-state actors against our networks and our critical infrastructure.”