NATO wants to beef up its cyber defence capabilities with the creation of a special task force to detect and respond to Internet attacks, an alliance expert said Wednesday at a conference on cyber security here.

"NATO is planning to establish the Cyber Red Team (...) that would provide a significant contribution to the improvement of NATO's cyber defence capability," Luc Dandurand and expert with NATO's C3 Agency told delegates to the alliance's third annual cyber defence conference.

The new NATO cyber force could be involved in simulating threats and controlling readiness to response, gathering and using public information from open sources, scanning and probing networks as well as conducting denial-of-service attacks against specific services or networks, according to Dandurand.

The Symantec cyber security firm recently reported that web-based attacks in 2010 were up 93 percent from 2009.

"The need for such a team is obvious," Dandurand said, adding it would primarily be tasked with detecting, responding to and assessing the "damage cyber attacks can cause in a military sense."

Dandurand also highlighted legal and privacy issues that must be addressed before NATO's cyber force can take shape.

"The two main issues identified at this point are the need to legitimize the Cyber Red Team activities that could otherwise be construed as the malicious or unauthorized use of computer systems, and the potential for invasion of privacy resulting from cyber red team activities," he told experts gathered at NATO's Tallinn-based Cyber Defence Centre.

"Cyber-attacks against Estonia in the Spring of 2007, during Russia's operation in Georgia in 2008, and the many more cyber attacks we have seen worldwide since then have shown us there is a new kind of war that can cause a lot of damage," Major General Jonathan Shaw, a British defence ministry official told delegates.

"We need a response system and we need to learn to respond fast. In the cyber world you have to do lot of homework before the attack in order to be effective," he added.

The three-day conference, which kicked off Tuesday and is attended by 300 international cyber experts, focuses on the legal and political aspects of national and global Internet security.

earlier related report
Cyberwarfare summit sets security targets
Washington (UPI) Jun 8, 2011 - The Cyber Warfare and Security Summit in Washington will focus on setting targets that could advance defense safeguards and get tough on hackers from overseas, especially of the foreign government-sponsored variety.

Recent cybercrime incidents have confirmed suspicions in Washington that foreign hacking into public and private sector networks in the United States and other industrial countries is often inspired by hostile governments.

Pentagon officials involved with defense against Internet crime were cited in security briefs that concluded that computer sabotage coming from another country can constitute an act of war and justify preventive or retaliatory action deploying traditional military force.

Major cyberattacks have been blamed on Chinese hackers and both Israel and Russia were mentioned in computer attacks on regional rivals.

The Cyber Warfare and Security Summit, set for June 27-29, has been organized by the Institute for Defense and Government Advancement, which describes itself as a non-partisan, information-based organization dedicated to the promotion of innovative ideas in public service and defense.

Cyberterrorism and cyberthreats in general are regarded in the security industry as a major business growth area with the potential for drawing both government and private organizations into multibillion-dollar partnerships anchored on the perceived threat.

Impetus for multilevel action against cyberthreats gained strength after the Obama administration launched its cybersecurity awareness program in 2009 on the back of the annual October event set up after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

IDGA said the current response springs from the evolution of information technology, until a few years ago a support function at the Pentagon, to "a strategic element of power in its own right."

It said any major future conflict will almost certainly involve cyberwarfare and will affect all aspects of society, not just the military.

"Defending against and defeating cyberattacks requires combined efforts from public and private sectors, working to develop new technologies and approaches for maintaining real-time protection of their individual networks," said IDGA, reflecting a prevailing industry view that what appeared to be a niche market is now big business worldwide.

The organizer has said senior military personnel, corporate leaders and academics will attend the discussions.

Moves are afoot also to internalize concern and involve decision-makers in other industrial countries in joint action and coordinated framing of strategies for defense and prevention.

"It's time to prepare for tomorrow's fight today," said Nicole Bacani, program director for the summit.

Already there is mention of cyberthreats as an emerging Pentagon doctrine that will look at both defensive and offensive information warfare systems at tactical, operational and strategic levels.

Analysts said an immediate challenge faced by both government and business sectors was how and where to find the money for embarking on ambitious and increasingly expensive cybersecurity programs.