Deputy CIO, NATO, Belgium
Mr. Mario Beccia is NATO's Deputy Chief Information Officer for Cybersecurity. He holds a university degree in Economics and Management, an MBA in management of innovation, and several certifications in cybersecurity and information technology (PMP, CISM, CISSP, CCSP, ITIL, TOGAF).
He started his career in 1997 by joining a start-up company focused on the use of web technologies for businesses. He worked as senior consultant on IT and Information Assurance projects in Italy and Belgium.
He joined NATO Allied Command Transformation in 2006, where he worked on business transformation and capability development programs. He supported the setup of the NATO Computer Incident Response Capability (NCIRC) and IT Modernization (ITM) programs by collecting and engineering requirements, championing the creation of an implementation roadmap for Cloud Computing and Cyber Defence in NATO, working with various entities in the organization (such as NCIA, NOS, Cyber Defence Committee, C3Board, Emerging Security Challenges Division).
He moved on to the NATO C&I Agency in 2015, where he supported the creation of several Cyber Defence information exchange initiatives (including the NICP, NATO Industry Cyber Partnership) and implementation programs, including the NCIRC (NATO Computer Incident Response Centre, today's NATO Cybersecurity Centre, NCSC) implementation across more than 50 entities and locations in the NATO Enterprise.
He joined the European Defence Agency in 2018 as Chief Information Security Officer and Project Officer Cyber Defence, leading the definition of a Cybersecurity practice in the Agency, the creation of a stronger classified information management ecosystem and the Cyber Defence program of the Agency. He led and supported several cross-domain and multinational projects under the PESCO (PErmanent and Structured COoperation) framework and other multinational initiatives. In 2020, he started the milCERTs Interactive Conference, a yearly cybersecurity exercise and conference aimed at creating a stronger military CERT interaction between EU military entities.
In March 2021 he joined back NATO in the Office of the Chief Information Officer. In his role of Deputy CIO for Cybersecurity, he deputizes for the NATO Chief Information Officer in the function of Single Point of Authority for Cybersecurity, leading a major Cybersecurity program.
He holds several responsibilities in cybersecurity operations, including managing large scale cybersecurity incidents, Enterprise cybersecurity risks and co-leading the execution of defensive cyberspace operations. He offers strategic and technical advice to committees and boards dealing with cybersecurity matters, across a community of civilian and military leaders from NATO Allies. He provides direction to the NATO Cyber Security Centre and to the overall NATO cybersecurity community (500+ people across 32 countries in Europe and North America).
He is passionate about martial arts, computer programming, crypto currencies and electric vehicles.
