An EU agency has called for all member states to establish a
Computer Emergency Response Team
(
CERT) to increase the resilience of their communication
networks.
This is a key finding of a report by the European Network and
Information Security Agency
(
ENISA).
Communication networks and information systems are of vital
importance in today's economy and should have the same protection
as electricity supplies, the report said.
The report analyses the rules, policies and practices of 25
European states developed to protect public networks from
cyber-attack.
The need to ensure the networks' robustness against physical
threats and cyber-attacks is a key issue at national and
pan-European level, the report said.
A joint survey with Deloitte Enterprise Risk Services Belgium,
on which the report is based, found that many EU states have
overlapping policies and agencies in this area.
The report recommends consolidating these by developing an
"integrated and holistic national risk management process" under a
single CERT for each country.
European states should consider establishing trusted information
sharing mechanisms between private and public stakeholders, the
report said.
This could include cross-country or pan-European information
sharing mechanisms, the report said, to benefit from the
information flow and knowledge shared.
"This work underpins member states' efforts to debate and
co-operate on this issue in a more structured manner," said Andrea
Pirotti, executive director of ENISA.
The analysis and stock taking of the national policy and
regulatory activities around public networks is the first organised
work undertaken at EU level.