A large scale pan-European cyber risk exercise, bringing together 150 information security practitioners from 70 public bodies around Europe, was completed yesterday.

The exercise, dubbed Cyber Europe, was organised by the EU Member States and jointly supported by the European Network Security Agency (ENISA) and the EU’s Joint Research Centre (JRC).

Participating were 22 member states as players and eight member states as observers. In all, about 50 people were present in the exercise control centre, situated in Athens, being exposed to more than 320 security ‘injects’ related to the availability of internet and corresponding critical online services. Across the participating member states an additional 80 individuals were acting upon the instructions of the national moderators in Athens. Typical profiles of players were IT disaster response teams, ministries, national regulatory authorities.

The participants were exposed to more than 320 incidents, with the aim of. strengthening Europe’s cyber defence, and:

-establish trust in both within and between member states
-increase understanding of how management of incidents is done in different member states
-test communication channels, points and procedures
-highlight interdependencies
-increase mutual support procedures during incidents or large scale cyber attacks

The exercise revealed a number of points where improvement in communication channels and procedures could be made. Executive director of the organising agency, European Network Security Agency (ENISA), Dr Udo Helmbrecht said: “This was a first key step for strengthening Europe’s cyber protection...now, the challenge is for…member states to analyse and properly implement these findings….”

Share Story: