NATO’s cyber security hampered by old-style cost models and acquisition delays

Officials at the NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCIA), the alliance’s cyber and information and communications technology (ICT) procurement wing, say they intend to push down the cost of NATO’s contracted cyber security products and services by, among other things, targeting the operations and maintenance (O&M) side to cyber security and shifting more of NATO’s ICT functions to the cloud.

“NATO’s current multi-year cyber security contracts [with industry] entail low capital expenditure but high operational cost,” Ian West, NCIA’s cyber security chief, told NATO’s annual cyber security conference in Mons, Belgium, on 18 October. “Why is this? Because the mode for industry is to go in low [on multi-year product or service offers] and make the profit on O&M.”

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