Leonardo has signed a contract with the NATO agency “NCIA” (NATO Communication and Information Agency) for the extension of the information protection services for the Alliance for a further 18 months. The new agreement, called "NCIRC - CSSS" (NATO Security Incident Response Capability - Cyber Security Support Services), ensures the continuity of the cyber security activities provided by Leonardo as part of the NCIRC - FOC (Full Operational Capability) program, which ends in February 2019.
Since 2012 Leonardo has collaborated with the NCIA agency to protect the infrastructure of NATO's communication and information system from cyber attacks in continuous growth and evolution, supporting the Alliance in carrying out its mission. A joint staff of Leonardo and the NCIA, made up of about 200 digital security experts, provides NATO personnel in 29 countries with cyber incident detection, management and response services. The protection extends from networks to portable devices, covering 75 sites, including NATO headquarters. The service also successfully operated for the cyber security of the 2014, 2016 and 2018 NATO Summits.
The new agreement is the result of the excellent operational result obtained in recent years and confirms the relationship of trust between Leonardo and NATO. In 2015, there was a first expansion of the NCIRC-FOC program to 10 additional NATO locations in Europe, completed in 2017 in line with assigned requirements, time frames and budgets. In 2016, Leonardo and NCIA also signed an Industrial Partnership Agreement (IPA - Industrial Partnership Agreement) to share information on cyber security, with the aim of better understanding threat and attack trends.
In addition to providing cyber security services to NATO, Leonardo supports individual nations, companies and businesses, critical infrastructures, government and defense agencies and financial institutions. In September 2017, the company announced that it had been selected by the European Space Agency (ESA) as the cybersecurity partner of Galileo, the European satellite navigation program. Leonardo also has several collaborations in the sector in the Gulf and Southeast Asia.
Investments in cybernetic skills are continuous, with services and solutions designed to evolve in line with cyber threats, in constant transformation. Furthermore, Leonardo provides training and training activities through its own infrastructures and polygons in Italy and in the UK, allowing the
specialists to practice against emerging dangers. To respond to a growing demand, last June Leonardo has, for example, tripled the size of his training center in Lincoln, in the United Kingdom, dedicated to the training of experts in the field of cyber and electromagnetic activities, which now allows train up to 150 students simultaneously.