NATO boosts cyber defenses but members differ on its role

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ministers agreed to strengthen the organization’s cyberdefenses but differed about how much NATO should do to protect smaller allies from potentially devastating hacking attacks.

Defense ministers from the 28 allies agreed that NATO's cyberdefense capability should be fully operational by October, extending NATO protection to all of the dozens of computer networks owned and operated by the alliance. They have also agreed to establish rapid reaction teams to help protect NATO's own systems. NATO members agree that the organization’s priority must be to defend NATO's own computer networks, since these are the systems used to coordinate military operations among the allies.