Cybersecurity: EU wants to better protect infrastructure from cyberattacks

Hospitals, power plants, airports and the power grids in the EU should be better protected against cyber attacks in the future. Negotiators from the European Parliament and the EU states have agreed, among other things, that a so-called cybersecurity warning system should be set up in the future. Parliament and member states still have to confirm the agreement, although this is considered a formality.

According to the information, the system is a device designed to detect cyber threats in a timely manner, respond to them and exchange information. This would allow authorities and responsible bodies to react more quickly and efficiently.

1.1 billion euros for the EU cyber solidarity law

According to the regulation, particularly important facilities such as hospitals or power plants should also be examined for possible vulnerabilities. In addition, a European certification system for security services will be created to give providers more trust in cybersecurity services.

The agreement on the regulation is based on a proposal from the EU Commission, according to which cyber threats should also be warded off with the help of data analysis and artificial intelligence. According to estimates by the Commission, the so-called EU Cybersolidarity Act and the associated measures will cost around 1.1 billion euros.

Threat in cyberspace in 2023 “higher than ever before”

When the project was presented a year ago, the authority announced that increasingly frequent and serious hacker attacks were a threat to the European internal market. This was made even worse by the Russian war of aggression and the large number of “state, criminal and hacktivist actors” involved.

The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) also warned in its 2023 report on the IT security situation in Germany that the threat in cyberspace is “higher than ever before”.

Hospitals, power plants, airports and the power grids in the EU should be better protected against cyber attacks in the future. Negotiators from the European Parliament and the EU states have agreed, among other things, that a so-called cybersecurity warning system should be set up in the future. Parliament and member states still have to confirm the agreement, although this is considered a formality.

According to the information, the system is a device designed to detect cyber threats in a timely manner, respond to them and exchange information. This would allow authorities and responsible bodies to react more quickly and efficiently.

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