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Thursday, November 4, 2010

Digital strategy: testing the defenses European

On November 4th, takes place the first simulation of a cyber attack organized on a pan-European level, organized by the EU Member States with the support of the European Network Security Agency( ENISA) and Joint Research Centre (JRC). Cyber-security experts will have to fight hackers trying to cripple online services in several EU Member States. As part of this exercise "Cyber Europe 2010", EU Member States should cooperate to avoid a total blockage (simulated) of the network. The objective is to strengthen confidence and security online at European level for citizens and businesses.Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission for the Digital Agenda, who is visiting the UK's cyber-attack centre during the simulation exercise, said this exercise to test Europe's preparedness against cyber threats was an important first step towards working together to combat potential online threats to essential infrastructure and ensuring citizens and businesses feel safe and secure online.

As part of today's "Cyber Europe 2010", experts across Europe will test their responses to a simulated attack from hackers on critical online services. The scenario for the exercise is that Internet connections between European countries are gradually lost or significantly reduced and, at its worst, effectively all major cross-country connections in Europe will be out of use.

In the simulation, citizens, businesses and public institutions would have difficulties to access critical online services (such as eGovernment), unless the traffic from affected interconnections were rerouted. The exercise will be based on a scenario as if, throughout the day, one country after the other increasingly suffered from access problems. All participating Member States will have to co-operate to mount a joint response to the fictitious crisis.

This cyber security exercise aims to enhance Member States' understanding of how cyber incidents are handled and test communication links and procedures in case of a real large-scale cyber incident. The exercise will test the appropriateness of contact points in the participating countries, the communication channels, the type of data exchanges over these channels and the understanding that Member States have of the role and mandate of their counterparts in other Member States.

The cyber security exercise has been organised by the EU's Member States in coordination with the European Network Security Agency (ENISA), and with the support of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre. All EU Member States as well as Iceland, Norway and Switzerland will participate either as active participants or observers. Depending on the country, various Member States' public authorities are involved, such as Communications Ministries, critical information infrastructure protection authorities, crisis management organisations, national computer security incident response teams (CSIRTs), national information security authorities and security intelligence organisations.

Background

ENISA was created in 2004. On 30 September 2010 the Commission proposed to strengthen and modernise ENISA with a view to helping the EU, Member States and private stakeholders to develop their capabilities and preparedness to prevent, detect and respond to cyber-security challenges (see IP/10/1239, MEMO/10/459).

Also on 30 September 2010, the Commission proposed a Directive which would allow the perpetrators of cyber attacks and the producers of related and malicious software to be prosecuted and face heavier criminal sanctions. Member States would be also obliged to quickly respond to urgent requests for help in the case of cyber-attacks, rendering European justice and police cooperation in this area more effective (see MEMO/10/463).

Source  Press room - European Commission

More information  Press room - European Commission

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