The Netherlands’ MoD CIO prepares for ‘data-centric warfare’

War is switching. While common conflicts are even now popular, today’s battlefield is becoming digital, states Dr Jeroen van der Vlugt, main details officer at the Netherlands’ Ministry of Defence.

As a final result, protecting the region and its allies from cybersecurity threats is a very important section of the Ministry’s perform, van der Vlugt describes. “We have the undertaking of defending the Netherlands and defending our companions in the physical planet, but also in the cyber planet.”

The switching nature of war usually means that digital engineering knowledge is becoming a issue of countrywide safety. Van der Vlugt spoke to Tech Keep an eye on to demonstrate how the Dutch MoD’s IT infrastructure, and the way engineering is ruled, are evolving to assist this capacity.

Regardless of whether it is cyberattacks on countrywide infrastructure or misinformation strategies, point out actors are applying digital usually means to achieve their overseas coverage objectives. Van der Vlugt is not shy about who people point out actors are: “The East, from a Western viewpoint,” he states – far more particularly, Russia and China.

In 2007, Estonia fell victim to a large cyberattack which still left the region with no accessibility to govt and business digital providers for 22 days. A lot more lately, hackers have introduced cyber offensives versus top Lithuanian officials and final decision makers. In both of those circumstances, the Kremlin is thought to have been driving the assaults.

Regardless of whether or not these tactics represent ‘war’ in the common feeling is up for debate. Introducing to the complexity is the issues in attributing these assaults to point out actors or criminals, Van der Vlugt describes. “For occasion, we saw it with the Colonial Pipeline [ransomware assault] in the US,” he states. “It was attributed to a Russian prison organisation… which in some cases also functions for the Russian govt in attacking other governments.”

War or not, this switching threat requires defence ministries to adapt. “The issue is that when the conflict is switching, how can you adapt to that problem?” For Van der Vlugt, data is very important to this adaptation. “Anyone who has the finest details at the suitable time… will earn the war,” he states.

Any person who has the finest details at the suitable time will earn the war.

As a final result, the Dutch MoD is implementing “new data platforms to trade details in between our modern weapon programs.” This includes programs that system the broad volumes of data produced by sensors embedded in armed service equipment, these as the F-35 or MQ-9 plane or new sea vessels, to aid commanders make decisions. In the meantime, the Ministry is renewing its full IT infrastructure, deploying non-public cloud infrastructure in new data centres.

Van der Vlugt simply cannot divulge which data platforms it is applying: “That would hurt our placement,” he states. And in fact, the developing digitisation of armed service operations is both of those an possibility and a threat, he states. By interfering with data or algorithms, an adversary could influence armed service strategy. But this is a double-edged sword: “It is also providing us an possibility to do the identical with our opponents,” states Van der Vlugt.

Netherlands’ MoD CIO on successful a seat on the board

When van der Vlugt joined the Dutch MoD in early 2020, the CIO placement did not have a seat at the executive board. This, he states, meant that engineering knowledge was not presented enough priority.

“When you are reporting to a CFO or other person, you are not in the suitable placement to go over IT, data and cyber at board stage,” he describes. “That is a extremely vital lesson I’ve realized and I feel each individual CIO should really have a seat at the table.”

But considering that joining, van der Vlugt has secured a seat on both of those the MoD’s executive board and its Board of Defence, a precise committee responsible for defence and capacity arranging and procurement. As a final result, his engineering knowledge feeds into conversations of funds and organisation priorities, and helped form the MoD’s Defence Eyesight 2035 strategy.

Van der Vlugt’s department also initiated a competencies gap evaluation to determine the point out of IT, cybersecurity and data competencies amid the employees in the organisation, and in which enhancements are necessary.

1 area of emphasis has been the Ministry’s senior management. New recruits be a part of the armed service at a younger age, typically in their late teenagers. As a final result, today’s senior officers joined twenty or 30 decades back, when the strategic technologies of the latest period have been even now nascent. “You have to teach the top management of the organisation about cyber, data science and AI simply because when you really do not do that, they even now will make decisions which are not meant for long run war preventing.”

The Dutch MoD also offers cybersecurity and data science instruction for its civilian workers. As section of its defence cyber strategy, the Ministry trains all employees to make them conscious of the gains and pitfalls of the digital period. “We supply data science modules to everyone within the Ministry of Defence,” van der Vlugt describes. “We do the identical for cyber-relevant matters so everyone is entitled to get in touch with people instruction programs.”

This underscores van der Vlugt’s check out that “data-centric warfare” will outline the conflicts of the long run, and nations around the world that have the infrastructure and capability to exploit data will be the victors.

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