ENISA on EU cyber security at Parliament’s SEDE Committee
March 2015 by ENISA
ENISA’s Executive Director, Udo Helmbrecht, gave a speech today Monday 16th March 2015, at the SEDE (Security and Defence) subcommittee meeting in Brussels, in an exchange of views on cyber security and defence.
Topics discussed involved:
Assessing efficiently the threat landscape and understanding the cyber dynamics as an important tool towards an active and agile security management
The critical role of CERTs – the EU’s Computer Emergency Response Teams – for developing ‘baseline capabilities’ and providing an EU wide network responding to cyber incidents and threats
The development of pan-European cyber exercises and cooperation among Member States
The protection of Critical Information Infrastructure (CIIP) and the development of a common approach to incident reporting in Europe, bringing together National Regulatory and Data Protection Authorities
The development of National Cyber Security Strategies (NCSS) in the Member States
The need for an EU legislation supporting privacy, by requiring systems’ developers and service providers to build in data protection measures from the design phase on (‘security by design’)
The need for trusted core NIS technologies and services (an innovative business model for EU companies producing cyber security services and products) for the EU to become the single market of choice for governments and industry
Challenges for the future illustrate that there are different aspects to cyber security and cyber-attacks. Firm action will be required, as a significant evolution in top threats is expected. To enable to address this, cooperation among Member States, EU Institutions, and other relevant bodies is a top priority. Furthermore, it is necessary to establish European prevention, detection and response capabilities and implement early warning systems.
Udo Helmbrecht said: “The protection of information, information systems and infrastructure from those threats associated with the use of ICT systems in a globally connected environment is inevitably linked with effective security policies, and robust and resilient cyber defence capabilities, within a common EU policy. There are different aspects to cyber security and cyber-attacks. But all current security approaches tend to make use of the same technology, making it difficult to judge who is attacking what and why. Within this context, it should be examined what cyber security can offer at another level, contributing and protecting the EU citizens. Cyber security is the EU’s ‘digital frontier’”.
Within this context, ENISA provided an overview of its active contribution at an EU level. The meeting was broadcast live and is available via the European Parliament multimedia library.