Ilves suggested the format in an interview with magazine Inside Cybersecurity.

"Only the U.S. is capable of putting this together, only the U.S. has the possibility of providing leadership," Ilves said.

According to him, the place to start is an informal forum for collaboration that could later evolve into a union complete with obligations to its members and legal structures of its own.

Ilves also said that NATO has experience with interational cooperation, and the project could be started from there. But thought should be given to going beyond transatlantic cooperation, by involving Japan, Korea, and Mexico, and more countries beyond them.