As of November 17th 2011, Poland and the US are members of NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence based in Tallinn.

Established in 2008, the NATO CCD COE has the status of an international military organisation and the NATO accreditation. The NATO CCD COE’s mission is to develop defence capabilities, cooperation and exchange of information on cyber-security between NATO members and partners through education, research and consultations.

For Poland, the accession to the Centre as well as posting a Polish expert to the CCD COE is a natural continuation of a broader effort focused on creation of a national framework for secure and stable operation in cyberspace.

Already in December 2010 Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski announced Poland’s plans to join the Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, which resulted from Poland’s involvement in the development of a coordinated, multinational approach to threats in cyberspace.

“Estonia has quite recently fallen victim to such threats”, Minister Sikorski said. “Such threats were also evident during the Wikileaks case. For us the Tallinn Centre is a place where combined efforts of NATO members will lead to developing an effective and wide-ranging system of cyber-defence”, Foreign Minister Sikorski noted.

With Poland an the U.S., the Centre now has 10 Sponsoring Nations who participate in the work of the Centre. As a Sponsoring Nation, each country sends their experts to work in the Centre and each country also contributes to the shared budget. In addition to Poland and the U.S., Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Spain are taking part of the Centre.

NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence is one of many NATO Centres of Excellence. Its mission is to enhance the capability, cooperation and information sharing among NATO, its member nations and partners in cyber defence by virtue of education, research and development, lessons learned and consultation.

Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)