6 March 2024 will mark the political agreement reached between the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on the Cyber Solidarity Act.
Driven largely by the rise in cyberattacks since the start of the war at Europe’s doorstep, the European Union’s cyber solidarity legislation was backed by all 27 EU member states in favour of European cyber resilience (Cyber Resilience Act).
This cyber solidarity legislation will therefore help improve preparedness, detection and response to cybersecurity incidents across the EU.
Here are the actions set out in this new cyber solidarity legislation:
I] A European cyber shield
This alert system will consist of a network of national and cross-border cyber hubs (SOCs) across the entire EU.
These Security Operations Centres (SOCs) will rely on state-of-the-art tools and infrastructure such as artificial intelligence and advanced data analytics to detect cyber threats and incidents at an early stage.
” Speed of detection is a key factor in responding to cyber threats. With the deployment of a European SOC infrastructure, we are improving reaction times and facilitating cooperation in order to achieve a true European shield for cyberspace. ” said Thierry Breton, Commissioner for the Internal Market.
With this infrastructure, the authorities and other relevant entities will be informed of the state of the cyber threat in real time.
II] A cyber emergency mechanism
This will strengthen preparedness and response capabilities for the most significant and even large-scale cyber incidents.
Here are the three main areas supported by this mechanism:
Support for preparedness actions
By coordinating preparedness testing for potential vulnerabilities in entities operating in critical sectors, such as healthcare, finance and energy, to name but a few.
Testing these entities in crucial sectors will make it possible to detect potential weaknesses that could make them vulnerable to cyber threats. A common EU-level risk assessment is planned to select the entities to be prioritised for these tests.
The creation of an EU Cybersecurity Reserve
This EU Cybersecurity Reserve will consist of incident response services provided by private service providers, known as trusted providers. These trusted providers can be deployed at the request of member states and EU institutions, bodies and agencies, and under the Digital Europe Programme, to help them deal with major cybersecurity incidents.
” The European Parliament and the Council have also reached an agreement on the amendment of the Cybersecurity Act. This amendment opens up the possibility of adopting European certification schemes for managed security services. It will provide a framework for establishing trusted providers in the EU Cybersecurity Reserve under the Cyber Solidarity Act. ” writes the European Commission on its website.
Financial support and mutual assistance
This mechanism will support a member state that provides assistance to another member state affected by a cybersecurity incident.
III] A European cybersecurity incident review mechanism
Where significant incidents have already occurred, this European mechanism will review and assess the criticality of these cyber incidents in order to make recommendations to improve the EU’s cybersecurity posture.
At the request of the European Commission or national authorities such as the EU-CyCLONe network or the CSIRTs network, the EU Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) will be responsible for reviewing significant or large-scale cybersecurity incidents and should deliver a report presenting the lessons learned from these cyberattacks and, where appropriate, recommendations to improve the EU’s cybersecurity response capability.
Conclusion
As part of the European Union’s ordinary legislative procedure, an informal interinstitutional negotiation (trilogue) bringing together representatives of the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission must take place.
This cyber solidarity legislation will then be submitted to the European Parliament and the Council for formal approval. Once formally adopted, the Cyber Solidarity Act will enter into force on the twentieth day following its publication in the Official Journal.
The Cyber Solidarity Act will subsequently increase funding for cybersecurity actions under the Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL) for the period 2025-2027.
