Smart defence first introduced in Lisbon 2010 aims at redefining substantially NATO's internal functioning. Behind this strategic concept imposed in times of profound fiscal austerity lays a series of practical initiatives that aims to ensure security without spending more money. In practical terms, smart defence focuses on prioritisation, specialisation and cooperation. This means that an effective smart defence policy implies to streamline the available capabilities, funds and human resources in order to create different poles of excellence.

NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCDCOE) based in Tallinn, Estonia, is part of this initiative since its goal is to increase the effectiveness of the defence expenditures in the field of cyber defence. 

Indeed NATO realized the extent of cyber criminality when Estonia was victim of an unprecedented cyber attack triggered from Russia that almost paralysed the country in 2007.Therefeore, the need to counter this new kind of threat urged the alliance to devote an adequate answer that would assist all NATO members against cyber criminality. With the establishment in May 2008 of the CCDCOE the alliance recognized cyber-criminality as one of the upcoming security threats of the 21^st century. 

During his trip to the Baltic countries on January 19-20, NATO’s Secretary General Rasmussen recalled the importance of "prioritisation, specialisation and cooperation" in the smart defence process. And precisely, the CCDCOE exemplifies how smart defence should look like.

The CCDCOE demonstrates that instead of pursuing national solution to international security threats NATO members are more efficient when they implement multi-national solutions. Through cooperation NATO members improve the delivery of capabilities as well as they distribute more fairly the burden of the defence expenditure. 

In 2011, the Cyber Coalition exercise included seven partners, Finland, Sweden, Australia, Austria, Ireland, New Zealand and the European Union. The interest of the NATO's partners in cyber security is already a sign of success for the Alliance.

According to NATO Security predictions for 2012 published in NATO Review Magazine, cyber terrorism is not only an upcoming major threat linked to "conventional" security issues but also to the fiscal crisis that impacts "people with high level of computing skills but few job opportunities." Therefore, the issue of cyber attacks targeting NATO systems is taken as an integral part of the new policy.