Joint Cyberspace Command

1.         Ensure free access to cyberspace in order to carry out the missions and tasks assigned to the Armed Forces, through the development and use of the necessary means and procedures.

2.         Ensure availability, integrity and confidentiality of information, as well as integrity and availability of the networks and systems that manage and entrust it.

3.         Ensure operation of the critical services of the Armed Forces information and telecommunications systems in a degraded environment due to incidents, accidents or attacks.

4.         Obtaining, analysing and exploiting information on cyberattacks and incidents in the networks and systems under their responsibility.

5.         Exercising a timely, legitimate and proportionate response in cyberspace against threats or aggressions that may affect National Defence.

6.         Directing and coordinating, in matters of cyber-defence, the activity of both the information security incident response centres of the Armies and Navy and the information security operations of the Ministry of Defence.

7.         Representing the Ministry of Defence in matters of military cyber defence at the national and international levels.

8.         Cooperating, in the area of cyber-defence, with the national information security incident response centres, in accordance with the national cybersecurity strategies and policies in force, as well as with other military information security incident response centres at the international level.

9.         Defining, directing and coordinating cyber-defence awareness, education and specialized training.

El MCCE se articula en:

• La Comandancia.
• La Segunda Comandancia.
• El Estado Mayor del MCCE (EMMCCE).
• La Fuerza de Operaciones en el Ciberespacio (FOCE).
• La Jefatura de Mando y Control (JMC).
• La Jefatura de Sistemas de Ciberdefensa (JSCD).
• La Jefatura de Telecomunicaciones y Guerra Electrónica (JTEW).

El EMMCCE es el principal órgano auxiliar del Comandante del MCCE, llevando a cabo las actividades de planeamiento, organización, coordinación, seguimiento y control del MCCE.

La FOCE es responsable de la ejecución de las operaciones militares que aseguren la libertad de acción de las FAS en el ciberespacio. En el ámbito de las citadas operaciones militares, dirige operativa y técnicamente las actividades de los Centros de Operaciones de Seguridad (COS) de las FAS. Coordina con los Ejércitos, la Armada y el Centro de Sistemas y Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (CESTIC) las acciones necesarias. Cuando se estén realizando operaciones en el espectro electromagnético, coordinará que la ejecución de las acciones ciber se realiza de forma concurrente con éstas.

The National Defence Directive 2012 establishes that deterrence is the result of having capabilities and the determination to use them if necessary. To this end, among other guidelines, it establishes that the Ministry of Defence participates in the promotion of comprehensive cybersecurity management, within the framework of the principles established for this purpose within the National Cybersecurity Strategy.

This comprehensive management requires the Ministry of Defence to contribute to national cybersecurity, not limited to protect purely military systems.

For this reason, and due to the critical nature of the information processed by information and telecommunications systems, their multiple dependence, technical complexity, quantity and geographical dispersion of their infrastructures, the creation of a Joint Cyber-Defence Command is required to direct and coordinate actions of the Armed Forces in this area.

The creation of the Armed Forces Joint Cyber-Defence Command (MCCD in Spanish) is the result of a gradual process in which four milestones are highlighted:

• 28^th January, 2011, approval by the JEMAD of the " Military Cyber-Defence Vision". This vision guides the definition, development and use of the national military capabilities necessary to ensure the effective use of cyberspace in military operations.
• 28^th July, 2011, approval by the JEMAD of the "Concept of Military Cyber -Defence". This concept establishes the principles, objectives and challenges of cyber-defence in the military field.
• 12^th July, 2012, approval by the JEMAD of the "Action Plan for Obtaining Military Cyber- Defence Capability. This plan is configured as a living document to adapt to the dynamic nature of cyberspace and the evolution of information technologies and to seek synergy through the coordination of efforts between the joint field (EMAD), the corporate field (DIGENIN), and the specific fields (Armies), as well as by taking advantage of existing structures.
• On 19^th February 2013, the Minister of Defence issued "Ministerial Order 10/2013, creating the Joint Cyber-Defence Command".

MCCD Emblem

The Defence Staff´s emblem, to which the MCCD organically belongs, embraces the globe, the space in which the Command carries out its work and over which it deploys an "atmosphere" which, like a firewall, represents the MCCD's protection of national interests in cyberspace.

The background on which this set is placed represents cyberspace itself, symbolized by the set of lines that make up the telecommunications networks and by a list of superimposed binary series, encoded in eight-bit ASCII, which have a particular meaning in relation to the Command itself. All this shows the mastery of information and communications technologies in which the MCCD carries out its Mission, and which characterises it as a highly specialised military unit.

The motto of the MCCD (Loyalty and Constancy - Ingenuity and Dexterity) is displayed on the outer strip, delimited by the outer and inner circles. The work of a Military Unit without the exercise of due loyalty is not understood. On the other hand, the characteristics of the mission of the MCCD require constancy in all its actions, giving priority to ingenuity in its conception and skill in its execution.

The motto of the MCCD aims to encourage the idea that its high technological specialization is in perfect consonance with the respect to the traditional military virtues, making patent that its components, although requiring a high specialization and a specific training are, above all, soldiers.

Finally, at the bottom of the outer circle are the inscriptions of the acronyms of Spain and of the Cyber Defence Command itself (ESP MCCD).

ESP DEF CERT is the name of the Ministry of Defence Incident Response Centre. It is part of the Joint CyberDefence Command. Its scope of action includes the networks and the information and telecommunications systems of the Spanish Armed Forces, as well as those other networks and systems specifically entrusted to it that may affect the National Defence.

Contact:

E-mail: esp-def-cert@mde.es

Telephone: 34 638 76 96 98

PGP Fingerprint: BF9A173DF0E4318E61291B73C0FAAD5ABC46B7FF