The NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency signed an Industry Partnership Agreement (IPA) on cyber information sharing with Dell subsidiary RSA Security on the margins of the NITEC17 conference, the agency said April 25.

RSA is the 12th industry partner and third in 2017 to join the series of agreements between NATO and industry partners that aims to improve their abilities to detect, prevent, and respond to cyber threats quickly. NATO leaders previously stressed the importance of information sharing and industry partnerships to address cyber security issues using the NATO Industry Cyber Partnership (NICP). The alliance heads of state and government previously endorsed the NICP in 2014 as a collaboration tool.

The agency noted that in practice this latest IPA will help facilitate quick and early bilateral exchanges of non-classified technical information related to cyber threats and vulnerabilities. The shared information will be integrated into the agency’s 24/7 detection and prevention processes to enhance the alliance’s cyber security posture, NATO said.

“The trust we have built through this programme has proved essential during incident response, resulting in faster communications and sharing of more contextual information that bolsters our collective cyberdefences. We are very pleased to welcome RSA as an information sharing partner in our fight against cyber threats,” Koen Gijsbers, general manager of the NCI Agency, said in a statement.

“RSA is thrilled to be joining forces with NATO; we believe greater levels of collaboration between private and public sectors to fight common adversaries is an absolute necessity,” added Mike Adler, vice president of RSA for the NetWitness  product suite.