EU moves to bolster cyber security capacities

The EU Parliament and Council reached provisional agreement Wednesday on the Cyber Solidarity Act to strengthen the EU’s capacities to prepare for, detect and respond to cybersecurity threats. The agreement comes at a time when the cyber threat landscape in the EU continues to be impacted by geopolitical events.

The Cyber Solidarity Act involves, firstly, the setting up of a European Cybersecurity Alert System, with a network of National and Cross-border Cyber Hubs, which will leverage state-of-the-art tools and infrastructures, such as Artificial Intelligence and advanced data analytics, to swiftly detect cyber threats and incidents.

The Act also creates a ‘Cybersecurity Emergency Mechanism’ to enhance preparedness and response capabilities to significant and large-scale cyber incidents. Finally, the proposal establishes a ‘European Cybersecurity Incident Review Mechanism’ to review and assess significant or large-scale incidents after they have occurred with the aim of providing recommendations to improve the EU’s cybersecurity standing.

The Cyber Solidarity Act will increase funding for Cybersecurity actions under Digital Europe Programme for the period 2025-2027. The Parliament and Council also reached an agreement on an amendment to the Cybersecurity Act which opens up the possibility of adopting European certification schemes for managed security services. It will help provide a framework for establishing trusted providers in the EU Cybersecurity Reserve under the Cyber Solidarity Act.

Following the provisional agreements, both texts now need to be endorsed by the Council and the European Parliament in view of their formal adoption.

Source: EUbusiness