The NATO Communications and Information Agency (NCI Agency) has awarded a contract valued at 1.2 million EUR to Atos Convergence Creators SRL, based in Romania, to install and configure cyber security systems at 22 NATO sites.

The NCI Agency announced earlier this year that experts had successfully collaborated with industry partners to upgrade the central management of two cyber security systems: the Network Intrusion Protection/Detection System (NIPS) and Full Packet Capture (FPC) system. This contract award begins the next and final phase of the project, where Atos will replace NIPS and FPC capabilities across the wider NATO footprint.

These two systems work together to help the NATO Cyber Security Centre, which is run by the NCI Agency, monitor NATO’s networks for threats and flag important issues. The NIPS uses pattern recognition to alert the Agency to unusual traffic on NATO’s networks, whilst FPC continuously records all network activity and is a primary source of information in support of incident response activities.

“This refresh represents a significant step forward in maintaining our ability to defend and protect NATO’s networks. Experts will start deployment at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in August, and then break off into three parallel teams to execute an aggressive timeframe of deployment in September,” said Miles Knight, Principal Project Manager at the NCI Agency.

This project was executed under the Capability Package (CP) 120 Programme, which aims to refresh and enhance cyber security capabilities used by the NATO Cyber Security Centre. The aim of this project is to complete the deployments no later than the first quarter of 2023.

“Coordinating deployments at 22 NATO sites over such a short timeframe is a challenge, but this project has been meticulously planned. We will also make use of the lessons learnt from implementing previous projects in the CP120 programme, so I have no doubts that it will be another success for NATO. In parallel to this, we keep on working on the remaining scope of CP120 and a new solicitation currently estimated at 30 MEUR will be released soon to industry,” added Fred Jordan, Head of the Cyber Security Programme Delivery Branch of the NCI Agency.