First EU cyber security exercise successfully concluded
The first ever, pan-European cyber security exercise “Cyber Europe 2010” ended successfully yesterday.
More than 150 experts from 70 public bodies around Europe participated in the exercise. They were exposed to more than 320 incidents. The exercise was a first key step for strengthening Europe’s cyber defense.
The key challenge now is for the Member States to implement the identified “lessons-learnt’ during the exercise. The Agency also advocates that all Member States in Europe should consider conducting national exercises as to improve its Critical Information Infrastructure Protection (CIIP).
The exercise revealed a number of points where improvement in communication channels and procedures could be made.
The Executive Director of ENISA, Dr Udo Helmbrecht commented: “This was a first key step for strengthening Europe’s cyber protection. Each mistake and error made were useful “lessons-learnt’; that is what exercises are for. Now, the challenge is for the Member States to analyse and properly implement these findings, of how to improve the communication channels and procedures. Both internally within a Member State, and in between Member States, across Europe, as to strengthen our common cooperation.”
The objectives of the exercise were:
- To establish trust in between actors within the Member State, and between the Member States (MS)
- To increase understanding of how management of incidents is done in different MS across Europe.
- To test the communication channels, communication points and procedures in the MS/between MS.
- To highlight interdependencies between MS across Europe.
- To increase mutual support procedures during incidents or massive cyber attacks.
The exercise will be evaluated in depth. There will also be evaluations made at national levels. These will later be fed into an accumulated public, EU-wide report of the exercise. The full report is anticipated to be published in early 2011.