EU strikes deal on cybersecurity package

The European Council presidency and European Parliament’s negotiators have reached a provisional agreement on the so-called ‘cyber solidarity act’, as well as targeted amendments to the cybersecurity act. The Council said that the agreement has been reached to strengthen the EU’s solidarity and capacity to detect, prepare for and respond to cybersecurity threats and incidents. “Today’s agreements set new milestones for Europe’s cyber resilience,” said Mathieu Michel, Belgian secretary of state for digitisation, administrative simplification, privacy protection and the building regulation. “Moreover, creating the possibility for the certification of managed security services will help to ensure a high common level of these cybersecurity services across the EU by facilitating their cross-border provision to the benefit of our citizens and businesses,” added Michel, speaking as Belgium holds the current presidency of the EU. The Council said that the new regulation establishes EU capabilities to make Europe more resilient and reactive to cyber threats, while strengthening cooperation mechanisms. It mainly aims to: Support detection and awareness of significant or large-scale cybersecurity threats and incidents. Bolster preparedness and protect critical entities and essential services, such as hospital and public utilities. Strengthen solidarity at EU level, concerted crisis management and response capabilities across member states. Contribute to ensuring a safe and secure digital landscape for citizens and businesses. To detect major cyber threats quickly and effectively, the new regulation establishes a ‘cybersecurity alert system’, which is a pan-European infrastructure composed of national and cross-border cyber hubs across the EU. These are entities in charge of sharing information and tasked with detecting and acting on cyber threats. They will strengthen the existing European framework and, in turn, authorities and relevant entities will be able to respond more efficiently and effectively to major incidents, said the Council. The regulation would also introduce a cybersecurity emergency mechanism to increase preparedness and enhance incident response capabilities in the EU. It will support: Preparedness actions, including testing entities in highly critical sectors for potential vulnerabilities, based on common risk scenarios and methodologies. A new EU cybersecurity reserve consisting of incident response services from the private sector, ready to intervene at the request of a member state or EU institutions, bodies and agencies, as well as associated third countries in case of a significant or large-scale cybersecurity incident. Mutual assistance in financial terms. The new regulation would create an evaluation and review mechanism to assess, among others, the effectiveness of the actions under the cyber emergency mechanism and the use of the cybersecurity reserve, as well as the contribution of this regulation to strengthening the competitive position of the industry and service sectors, said the Council. The amendment to the cybersecurity act aims to enhance the EU’s cyber resilience by facilitating the adoption of European certification schemes for ‘managed security services’. “Managed security services, provided to customers by specialised companies, are crucial for the prevention, detection, response and recovery from cybersecurity incidents. They can consist of, for example, incident handling, penetration testing, security audits, and consulting related to technical support,” explained the Council. “The amendment will enable the establishment of European certification schemes for managed security services. It will help to increase their quality and comparability, foster the emergence of trusted cybersecurity service providers, and avoid fragmentation of the internal market given that some member states have already started the adoption of national certification schemes for managed security services,” it added.

EU strikes deal on cybersecurity package

Agreement sets ‘new milestone’ for European cyber resilience

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