NATO selects IBM to further enhance Alliance’s cyber security resilience

Beginning in January 2024, IBM Consulting Cyber Security Services will be delivering a custom-made, performance-based Asset, Configuration, Patching and Vulnerability (ACPV) management service to the Alliance.

Following NATO’s new dynamic and competitive procurement process – itself featuring regular workshops, sprints and continuous communication with industry – the NCI Agency selected IBM as the organisation to deliver on NATO’s needs, leaning on IBM’s global security footprint and expertise in securing complex infrastructure and widely-dispersed environments.

As part of the agreement, IBM Consulting will build a customised solution that provides a unified view of NATO’s security posture. The company will deploy data analysis, asset discovery, integrations and security experts to provide a consolidated ‘single source of truth’ on information about assets, configurations, vulnerabilities and patches across NATO. This will improve the Alliance’s visibility into cyber risks and empower it to manage potential issues with more ease and speed across its network.

Cyber security functions across the NATO Enterprise will be able to use IBM Consulting’s ACPV service as the interface to access and dynamically query asset and configuration data, with a special focus on vulnerability management.

Collective resilience

“Collaboration with industry is essential to enhance our collective cyber resilience and respond more quickly to cyber threats and vulnerabilities,” affirmed Ludwig Decamps, general manager at the NCI Agency. “This agreement marks a significant milestone in a newly enhanced procurement process, enabling more agile and faster approaches to complex sourcing in order to deliver solutions that help strengthen the Alliance’s cyber security posture.”

This new service will be built on top of the existing asset, configuration and patching solutions across NATO. Additionally, the service will assist in creating an enterprise framework that eventually supports the needs of other key functional areas – such as IT service management and finance and auditing departments, which themselves rely on asset configuration and patch management information – through a federated approach.

Mohamad Ali, chief operating officer at IBM Consulting, observed: “Amid today’s growing geopolitical tensions on the global stage, NATO's security readiness is more important than ever. It’s essential to ensure IT assets and infrastructure are properly maintained, regularly updated and effectively secured in order to defend against rapidly increasing cyber threats. At IBM, we’re proud to be able to provide our vast experience in threat management to help NATO strengthen its security posture.”