D1.5 CYBER DEFENCE CONSIDERATION This factor reviews the government’s capacity to design a cyber defence strategy and lead its implementation, including through a designated cyber defence organisation. It also reviews the level of coordination between various public and private sector actors in response to malicious attacks on strategic information systems and critical national infrastructure. Maturity Stage: Start-up Iceland’s Cyber defence is mainly being considered in terms of national cyber resilience (see D1.3) and the country is prioritising the protection of national CI assets as a priority action of the NCSS. Beyond that it is also part of Iceland’s defence planning. Following, we present the country’s structure on defence related issues. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is the central authority for defence and in charge of implementation of the Defence Act No 34/200826, due to the absence of a dedicated Ministry of Defence. The Minister for Foreign Affairs formulates the defence policy within the framework of this Act and is responsible for the performance of a threat assessment regarding defence. The Minister is also responsible for the formulation and implementation of Iceland's Security and Defence Policy on the international arena and for representing the Government of Iceland in relations and cooperation with foreign states, military authorities and international security and defence organisations, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. The Act does not apply to governmental matters that are civil in nature, such as policing and civil defence. Review participants noted that cybersecurity and defence is already being incorporated in national defence planning. This is now part of the formal agenda of national defence. In accordance with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Interior, now Ministry of Justice, and due to the lack of a standing army the Icelandic Coast Guard from July 2014 (ICG) is responsible for operational defence activities related to NATO, including NATO Iceland Air Defence System, CRC, Host Nations Support and operation of the Keflavik Air Base. The Iceland Crisis Response Unit (ICRU)27 has been a separate entity within the MFA since 2001. Its main role is to contribute to multilateral organisations and to provide secondments of civilian experts to the field. The Iceland Defence Force (IDF) was a military command of the United States Armed Forces from 1951 to 2006. The IDF, created at the request of NATO, came into existence when the United States signed an agreement to provide for the defence of Iceland. The IDF also included civilian Icelanders and military members of other NATO nations. 26 27 https://www.government.is/topics/foreign-affairs/national-security/ https://www.government.is/topics/foreign-affairs/icru/ 25 | Cybersecurity Capacity Review Iceland, 2017