Poland, US in cyber defence team-up
PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki
27.06.2019 01:00
Poland and the United States have signed an agreement to work together for the defence of cyberspace, a news agency has reported.
Poland's Brig. Gen. Karol Molenda (right) and America's Brig. Gen. Maria Biank (left) during the signing of the Polish-US cyberspace defence cooperation agreement in Warsaw on Wednesday.Photo: PAP/Marcin Obara
Under the agreement, the two countries will share information and carry out joint training and educational activities to enhance cyber security, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
The Arrangement on Cyberspace Defence Cooperation was signed in Warsaw on Wednesday by Gen. Karol Molenda, director of Poland’s National Cyber Security Centre, and Gen. Maria Biank, director of the US European Command’s Joint Cyber Center.
America’s Biank remarked at the signing that the agreement was crucial for information sharing.
She said: "Collective defence in cyberspace is critical to all of our defence, so when we collaborate and share information, we better understand what is happening in cyberspace and we can all defend against adversaries and threats ... So that is the substance of this agreement.”
Biank added that the agreement “formally opens the channel for information sharing and discussions.”
Poland's Molenda said that the agreement defined an evaluation system and a list of tasks to be carried out jointly by Polish and American units.
Poland’s Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak in February divulged details of a plan to create a new cyber defence force for the country to counter hi-tech security threats.
Błaszczak at the time named Molenda, a cyber security expert who previously worked for Poland’s Military Counterintelligence Service, as the man in charge of getting the new force up and running.
Poland's National Cyber Security Centre was created in March on the basis of the government-run National Centre of Cryptology and the military Inspectorate of Information Technology, according to the IAR news agency.
Błaszczak in December said that cyber security was one of the biggest challenges of the modern world. He was also quoted as saying that the new Polish cyber defence units would work to prevent and counter potential cyber attacks targeting the country.
He also said at the time that the initiative to create the new Polish force was a response to a growing cyber security threat and followed decisions made by NATO leaders at a summit in 2015.
Poland’s prime minister in January urged allies to increase spending on cyber security.
(gs/pk)
Source: IAR, usembassy.gov