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Green light for new regulation for EU Cyber Security Agency ENISA given by the European Parliament

Today, 16, April, the European Parliament voted in plenary in Strasbourg, on the new regulation proposal for strengthening ENISA, the EU’s “cyber security” Agency (formally the European Network and Information Security Agency).

The regulation proposal was adopted as tabled, without any additional amendments, with an overwhelming majority of the Members of Parliament, MEPs, with 626 votes in favour out of the 687 votes given in total, for a reinforced Agency. ENISA’s Executive Director, Professor Udo Helmbrecht, commented on the outcome: “We welcome this important step of the political process, where the European Parliament in plenary has given its full endorsement and support for strengthening ENISA, enabling it to focus its work more intensively on prevention and preparedness in the field of cyber security. In light of the political reality, with cyber security ever higher up on the political agenda, this strong acknowledgement of our work is a very important step. The vote of the European Parliament gives a green light for the continued and enhanced role of ENISA in its function of assisting Member States in improving the level of Network & Information Security throughout the EU.“ “With this new mandate, ENISA is able to fully support the EU’s Cyber Security Strategy, envisaging a reinforced role for ENISA, with the intention to increase resources to help protect Europe’s digital society and economy. The Strategy is also providing ENISA with a framework for both working more closely with and providing its expertise to other EU bodies, like Europol, who are operationally responsible for cyber-crime, and the European External Action Service, regarding cyber security at a global level”, Helmbrecht concludes.   Total of voting figures by the MEPs: 687 Votes in favour: 626 Votes against: 45 Abstentions: 16   Background: the EU’s Cybersecurity strategy ENISA Final regulation (Scroll down to Chichester, amendments. Click on the Amendments (green 'button') and a menu will open underneath with only one amendment. This is the consolidated version of the text agreed with the Council in word format and available in all languages European Parliament Press release Commission press release For interviews: Ulf Bergstrom, Spokesman, press@enisa.europa.eu, or mobile: +30 6948 460 143, or Steve Purser, Head of Core Operations Department, mobile phone: 00 30 6948 460 139. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

EU Agency ENISA: Internet Service Providers fail to apply filters against big cyber attacks

In its analysis of a recent massive cyber-attack, EU cyber-security agency ENISA today points out that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have failed to apply well-known security measures which have been available for over a decade.

This error is as a key factor behind the failure to counter major cyber-attacks, the Agency underlines in its information Flash Note, ‘Can Recent Cyber Attacks Really Threaten Internet Availability?’ The Flash Note focuses on the large-scale cyber-attack that was mounted in March against the Non-Profit Organisation Spamhaus, which is based in Geneva and London. The digital assault caused noticeable delays for internet users, primarily in the UK, Germany and other parts of Western Europe. According to online media, the attack on Spamhaus, starting on 16th March, was the biggest Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack in internet history. DDoS attacks work by “overloading” a site’s ability to cope with incoming traffic. The attack on Spamhaus lasted more than one week. In its final phase, the enormous amount of traffic generated caused problems at the London Internet Exchange. ENISA underlines that the technique used for the DDoS attack is by no means new. Yet, even today, many network providers do not use a set of recommendations, known as Best Current Practice 38 (BCP38), which have been around for almost 13 years. A similar set of recommendations for DNS server operators (BCP140, published in 2008) would have reduced the number of servers that can be misused for DNS amplification attacks. If these recommendations had been implemented by all operators, traffic filtering would block such attacks. There are, says ENISA, a number of lessons that can be learned from the attack, including: Attacks are increasing in size. The March 2013 attack on Spamhaus reached a size of more than 300 Gigabits of data per second while the biggest reported DDoS attack in 2012 was at 100 Gigabits of data per second. Size matters. At this size of attack, even commercial internet exchange points, which normally have very high capacity infrastructure, can be compromised. The Agency makes three technical recommendations: Relevant service operators should implement BCP38 Operators of DNS servers should check whether their servers can be misused, and should implement BCP 140 Internet exchange point operators should ensure they are protected against direct attacks. ENISA’s Executive Director, Professor Udo Helmbrecht, stated: “Network Operators that have yet to implement BCP38 and BCP140 should seriously consider doing so without delay, failing which their customers, and hence their reputations, will suffer. Prevention is key to effectively countering cyber-attacks. We therefore welcome the EU’s Cyber Security Strategy, which is proposing a strengthened role for ENISA, with adequate resources, to help protect Europe’s digital society and economy.” For full ENISA Flash Note Background: EU’s Cybersecurity strategy For interviews: Ulf Bergstrom, Spokesman, press@enisa.europa.eu, or mobile: +30 6948 460 143, or Dr. Louis Marinos, louis.marinos@enisa.europa.eu Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA's new corporate 2013 video clip launched

"Everything is connected"

ENISA has launched its new corporate video clip. This six-minutes movie describes the role of ENISA in a world where "everything is connected" both privately and professionally. Communication technology  connects us to family, friends, banks, and other private and e-government services we all rely on. But the Internet is under constant threat, from crime, attacks and accidents. Spamhaus, Stuxnet, Flamer, High Roller  to name a few of the sophisticated cyber-attacks that took place the last 3 years. It is the European Union Agency ENISA’s job to work with prevention at EU levels in the field of cyber security. ENISA is working with governments, regulators and industry to assess risks and identify practical solutions to keep business, citizens and economy secure. This way, we support the smooth functioning of Europe’s internal market. The need for governments to have fast and effective responses to cyber-attacks is demonstrated by recent  attacks on government web sites and, in the US, attempts to extract information on critical infrastructure,  such as electricity distribution  grids. ENISA supports the Computer Emergency Response Teams, CERTs, set up by governments and organisations to defend against cyber threats, with training, coordination, and advice on good practices and information sharing. For ENISA, providing support for Critical Information Infrastructure Protection (CIIP) is a priority.  The Agency organises Cyber-security exercises (e.g. Cyber Europe 2012),  to build Pan-European and international cooperation for large-scale cyber security incidents amongst a variety of other actions. 6 minutes - for your safety! The Internet and new technologies offer massive opportunities for Europe’s citizens and economy. The cyber and everyday worlds now merge seamlessly to give us the information and services we expect and need as digital citizens, but we need to focus on prevention and on designing better, more secure systems." For the new ENISA corporate video clip Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

15th ENISA Workshop on Cyber Exercises

On the 11th April ENISA organises the 15th ENISA Workshop on Cyber Exercises in Brussels.

The event will give the opportunity to EU Member States to discuss the implementation of the lessons learned from the Cyber Europe 2012 and plan the next EU cyber crisis cooperation exercises. For more information on the Cyber Europe 2012, see the links below: Cyber Europe 2012 - Key Findings Report in all 23 EU languages Cyber Europe 2012 video clip Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA Management Board meeting, in Crete, Heraklion, 21/03

ENISA Management Board meeting, taking place today (21/03/2013) in Heraklion.

The ENISA Management Board is today at the agency's headquarter premises in Heraklion for a regular MB meeting. For the first time, the Management Board, composed of around thirty persons, is led by its new Swedish Chair of the Management Board, Mr Jörgen Samuelsson (CV). Among the agenda points is the Agency's Strategy, amending Work Programme 2013, and the draft Work Programme 2014, as well as the General Report for 2012. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ISSE 2013: Call for Contributions

ISSE 2013: Call for Contributions: Submissions accepted until April 30th.

ENISA is once again taking part in the annual "Information Security Solutions Europe Conference (ISSE)" (22nd & 23rd October 2013, Brussels). The Agency will present updates on its latest work, and developments in the world of cyber security. The event organisers are keen to hear from anyone who may wish to make presentations at ISSE. For details of their call for papers, and general information on ISSE, see the links below. How to submit: http://www.teletrust.de/uploads/media/ISSE_2013_EEMA_TeleTrusT__CfC.pdf For full information re the ISSE: http://www.isse.eu.com/ ISSE 2013 will also be part of the European Cyber Security Month 2013 activities. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA 2009-report on Cloud Computing-now available in Italian

One of the most popular ENISA reports has independently received the support for increased dissemination and thus impact of ENISA’s work on cloud computing, as the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) Italy Chapter has, at its own initiative, translated the ENISA "Cloud Computing Risk Assesment" report into Italian.

Given this independent initiative of the Cloud Security Alliance, the 2009 reports “Cloud computing: Benefits, risks and recommendations for information security" and the “Risk" and "Assurance" reports are now available in Italian. Link to the file in Italian: Cloud Computing Risk Assesment-Italian Clarification; It should be noted that the translations has been undertaken by CSA, independently, and do not constitute an official EU or ENISA translation, nor is an endorsement by the Agency of the translation itself. Consequently, the Agency cannot be held liable for the translation of the report, nor for its recommendations, as per the usual legal disclaimer. To be transparent, we would like to mention that a former ENISA employee and report author, happens to be of Italian origin, and works at the CSA. The ENISA report cannot be used for commercial purposes, and ENISA remains the owner of the report. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA cooperating on nuclear cyber security with IAEA

ENISA participates in a consultancy meeting on Incident Response Planning for Computer Security Events at Nuclear/Radiological Facilities at the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, Headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

Already the legendary techno-electronica music group Kraftwerk wrote music about both “Computer World” and “Radioactivity”. Now these two elements are combined, as ENISA is pleased to participate at this IAEA meeting on cyber security for nuclear plants. The purpose of the meeting is for ENISA to provide its expertise, and to provide guidance on the process for developing a computer security incident response plan at a nuclear/radiological facility. Specifically, the meeting will provide guidance on the key elements required to develop and implement a comprehensive security response plan associated with an information and computer/computer systems attacks at nuclear material, or other associated activities. Meeting Agenda: Information and computer security incident scenarios Categorisation of information and computer security incidents Organisational roles and structures Outline of response and recovery procedures for incidents on industrial computer systems (ICS, including computer based systems used for physical protection, nuclear safety and nuclear material accountancy and control National reporting and response structures, including Computer Emergency Response Teams. Restoration and recovery activities. The output of the meeting is the document Incident Response Planning for Computer Security Events at Nuclear/Radiological Facilities. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

European Cyber Security Month 2013 – get involved!

The European Cyber Security Month (ECSM) 2013 team is inviting public and private sector organisations concerned with Network and Information Security to get involved in this year’s October programme, in line with the EU Cybersecurity Strategy. Following up on the successful ECSM pilot held in October 2012, the call for expression of interest is now open. We kindly invite you to provide any information for activities you planned in your country such as TV and radio campaigns, social media campaigns, competitions/quizzes with prizes, news articles, conferences, student fairs, road-shows, information sessions by Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs), "round table" discussion sessions, etc. And of course, we’d be very pleased to hear any new ideas that could be included in this year calendar.   Contact us in order to share your information and be part of a EU led advocacy campaign! Email: stakeholderrelations at enisa.europa.eu Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Irish EU-Presidency; Meeting with Minister of Dpt of Communications and Aidan Ryan – Irish MB member

The Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht met with the Minister of Department of Communications, energy and natural resources, Pat Rabbitte and the Irish Management Board member, Aidan Ryan, yesterday in Dublin.

In conjunction with this, Helmbrecht also  made a key note speech on the "Digital evolution: why, for Europe's future, "cyber" must mean "safer", at the high level meeting  during the Irish EU presidency at the  Institute of International and European Affairs IIEA today. Chairing the event was  Nora Owen, chair of the Institute's Justice Group and a former Minister for Justice. Among the attendees were e.g. also senior members of  the An Garda Siochána (national police), heads of IT security from banks, based in Dublin, as well as members of the diplomatic corps. For more details: http://www.iiea.com/events Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Urgent action is needed in order to combat emerging cyber-attack trends

EU cyber security agency, ENISA, has today issued an information Flash Note, ‘Cyber attacks – a new edge for old weapons’ that analyses and tracks recent cyber attacks.

The latest targeted cyber-attacks on government organizations and high-profile companies show the need for greater awareness and knowhow in network and information security, says the EU’s European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA). The Agency urges Europe’s businesses and government organisations to take urgent action to address cyber-attacks. It highlights several issues such as cyber space’s lack of borders, failing security measures and the security issues of email. It also makes several recommendations, for instance to focus more on prevention and to look at more secure communication solutions. Commenting on the latest wave of cyber attacks, ENISA’s Executive Director, Professor Udo Helmbrecht said:  “Well known cyber-attack methods, such as spear-phishing, are still very effective. However, much can be done to counter these attacks - by making users aware of traps, and by ensuring that better security measures are in place. “In cyberspace, it is difficult to be sure where attacks originate, so the focus should be on preventing and mitigating attacks, regardless of where the attackers are based.”   As well as the cyber-attack Flash Note, ENISA’s other recent publications include a comprehensive overview of the current cyber security risk landscape. For the full ENISA flash note: Cyber-attacks – a new edge for old weapons Background: EU Cybersecurity strategy  For interviews, please contact: Graeme Cooper, Head of public affairs, graeme.cooper@enisa.europa.eu or mobile: +30 6951 782 268, or Dr. Louis Marinos, louis.marinos@enisa.europa.eu Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Next generation of end-users visits ENISA

Today (12/03/2013) the EU’s cyber security Agency, ENISA, opened its doors to welcome thirty five students from Heraklion's School of European Education. The children, aged between 10 and 13, saw presentations on topics including social network advice, online trust, privacy, phishing and cyber bullying.

Graeme Cooper , Head of ENISA’s Public Affairs Unit,  said “As part of the local Heraklion community, we were delighted to have this visit from such an enthusiastic group of children. With kids going online at ever earlier ages, it’s important they get the message on safe internet use from the very start. Thanks to Louis Marinos, ENISA’s expert in Risk Management, and Andreas Sfakianakis for putting together a thought-provoking and informative seminar.” Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Helmbrecht at 'EU Science: Global Challenges & Global Collaboration' conference

The Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht, recently participated in the high level cyber security panel at the 'EU Science: Global Challenges & Global Collaboration'   conference in Brussels. This is a joint five-day conference of the Irish EU Council Presidency and the European Parliament, placing EU research at the centre of a global discussion on the scientific response to global societal challenges. The theme of Helmbrecht's panel was: Resilience and Trans-Atlantic Cooperation. This included these topics for the panel; How can threat intelligence be shared safely between organizations and countries?  Are policies sufficient to ensure appropriate data sharing?  Anonymity is often required by organizations before provide information about incidence.  How can anonymity be implemented?  Attribution of criminal activities in cyberspace is a challenge for law enforcement.  What technologies are needed to improve attribution?  What policies are needed? For more information: http://www.iscintelligence.com/event.php?id=65 Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA opens a new Athens office

EU cyber security agency ENISA opens the doors to its new branch office in Athens today (01/03/2013).

The Core Operations Department of the Agency is now located in the new premises, due to their extensive interaction with and frequent travel to the EU Member States. The new office replaces previous facilities in the Markopoulo area of Athens. ENISA’s seat is in the city of Heraklion, on the Greek island of Crete, where the Executive Director and all the other staff of the Agency continue to work. The ENISA Management Board Member for Greece, Nikos Mourkogiannis declared today:  “I am confident that the opening of ENISA’s office in Athens secures ENISA in Greece.” Steve Purser, Head of ENISA’s Core Operations Department, stated: “The move to Athens represents a big step in the development of the Agency and brings with it a host of new opportunities. In particular, travel to and from the Member States will be easier and faster with Athens as a hub.” ENISA’s Athens office address is: 1 Vasilissis Sofias Maroussi 151 24 Athens, Greece Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Positive vote for new ENISA regulation by European Parliament

The European Parliament has cast its vote confirming its positive stance on the new ENISA mandate.

The result of the European Parliament's ITRE (Industry, Research and Energy) Committee vote on the ENISA Regulation proposal was: Votes in favour: 48 Votes against: 2 Abstentions: 0 (96% in favour) See European Parliament news item of the unofficial, consolidated document. As reported earlier,  the political process is now proceeding according to its due course.     Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

EU views from ENISA ED

ENISA’s Executive Director, Professor Udo Helmbrecht is interviewed on the Vieuws EU policy broadcast web site.

The interview, with leading ICT journalist, Jennifer Baker, covers topics ranging from the new ENISA Regulation to how European industry can compete in the international cyber security market. Also discussed are cooperation with industry, Europe’s major cyber security exercises - in which ENISA plays a key role - and the wider tasks contained in ENISA’s new mandate. To see the interview, click here http://www.vieuws.eu/citizens-consumers/cyber-security-udo-helmbrecht-enisa/   Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA appoints new Chair of its Management Board

ENISA's Management Board has unanimously elected Mr Jörgen Samuelsson as its new Chair.

The election took place in Athens on 12 February. Of Swedish nationality, Mr Samuelsson is experienced in the fields of privacy and data protection, and the regulation of Internet networks and technologies, amongst other areas. The Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht stated: “I welcome our new Chair aboard, and wish him all the very best. I wish to thank his predecessor, Mari Herranen, for all her commitment and support to the Agency.”   Mr Ferenc Suba was unanimously re-elected in his capacity as the Vice-Chair of the Board. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Networking with Member States

ENISA's National Liaison Officers (NLO) met in Athens on 13th February, with 17 participants from EU Member States coming together to discuss collaboration with the Agency.

Although not formally based on ENISA's founding Regulation, the NLO network is of great value to ENISA as a key point of reference with the Member States on NIS-issues. ENISA also gains access to a network of national contacts through individual NLOs, reinforcing the dissemination of ENISA’s work. The meeting was of high value for all, since possible ways of collaboration and dissemination for ENISA's Work Programme 2013 were discussed.  A comprehensive debate followed, looking at different cyber security strategies and baseline capabilities of national and governmental Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) in the Member States, as well as discussing personal data protection, electronic identification and trusted services for electronic transactions. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

New ENISA report: The double-edged sword of Cloud computing in Critical Information Infrastructure Protection

ENISA has launched a new report looking at Cloud computing from a Critical Information Infrastructure Protection (CIIP) perspective, and identifying that Cloud computing is critical given the concentration of users and data and its growing use in critical sectors, such as finance, health and insurance.

In a few years, a large majority of organisations will be dependent on Cloud computing. Large Cloud services will have tens of millions of end-users. What happens if one of these cloud services fails, or gets hacked? “From a security perspective, the concentration of data is a ‘double-edged sword’; large providers can offer state-of-the-art security, and business continuity, spreading the costs across many customers. But if an outage or security breach occurs, the impact is bigger, affecting many organisations and citizens at once,” Dr Marnix Dekker says.  Last years, there have been many examples of failures affecting very large sites with millions of users (for example, the leap year bug outage). This report looks at the threats from a CIIP perspective, i.e. how to prevent large cyber disruptions and large cyber-attacks. The key messages of the report are: Critical infrastructure: Soon, the vast majority of organisations will use cloud computing notably also in critical sectors like finance, energy and transport. Cloud services are themselves becoming a critical information infrastructure. Natural disasters and DDoS attacks: A benefit of Cloud computing is resilience in the face of natural disasters and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)-attacks, which are difficult to mitigate using traditional approaches (servers on site, or single data centre). Cyber attacks: Cyber attacks exploiting software flaws can cause large data breaches, affecting millions of users, because of the large concentration of users and data. Physical redundancy does not safeguard against certain cyber attacks, such as data breaches exploiting software flaws.   The report also provides nine recommendations for bodies responsible for critical information infrastructures. Key points: Include large cloud services in national risk assessments, track cloud dependencies, and work with providers on incident reporting schemes. The Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht, commented: "Cloud computing is a reality and therefore we must prepare to prevent service failures and cyber attacks on cloud services. The European Cyber Security and Cloud Computing Strategies provide a roadmap for this." ENISA will launch a new working group focussing on CIIP and governmental Cloud security.   For full report and recommendations https://www.enisa.europa.eu/activities/Resilience-and-CIIP/cloud-computing/critical-cloud-computing/ Background:Commission’s CIIP action plan , European Commission Cloud Computing Strategy, EU Cybersecurity Strategy For interviews; Ulf Bergstrom, Spokesman, press@enisa.europa.eu, mobile: +30 6948 460 143, or Dr Marnix Dekker, ENISA Expert, resilience@enisa.europa.eu Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

New EU Cybersecurity strategy & Directive announced

Today, Thursday, 7th of February the European Commission and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy announced the EU's Cybersecurity Strategy, and a complementary proposal for a Directive on measures to ensure a high common level of cyber security across the EU.

EU’s Cyber Security strategy Proposal for a Directive on Network and Information Security Frequently Asked Questions; re the Directive proposal Commission press release; re EU Cybersecurity plan to protect open internet and online freedom and opportunity ENISA welcomes the initiative of the European Commission, and congratulates the High Representative Catherine Ashton, Vice-President  Neelie Kroes and Commissioner Cecilia Malmström on their joint achievement. The Executive Director of ENISA, Udo Helmbrecht, made a brief comment; "We are impressed by the comprehensiveness and ambitious scope of the Strategy. By successfully taking a broad approach, involving three Commissioners from different sectors, notably also the European External Action Service, the Commission has provided a clear statement of direction for the EU, which will also be of guidance for the Member States when formulating national policies. This is a great step that underlines the interdependence of networks, and the importance of cybersecurity being at the top of the political agenda, for the security of Europe's economy, society, business and citizens alike. The elements relating to ENISA in this communication are also a natural extension of the work of the Agency to date. We will analyse the Strategy and Directive further. Finally, we note that  it is particularly timely and welcome in relation to the on-going ENISA mandate process."   ENISA agreement endorsed and Political agreement reached on new mandate for ENISA Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Meeting between ED Helmbrecht & Finnish Minister for Communications

Today, 07/02, the Executive Director of ENISA, Udo Helmbrecht, met with the Finnish Minister of Housing and Communications, Ms Krista Kiuru.

The Executive Director attended a conference on ENISA and the EU perspective on cyber security in Finland organised by the Ministry of Transport and Communications, in Helsinki, Finland. The conference in Finland was, more in detail, focussed on the  status of ENISA mandate, re-organisation, new tasks and future potentials. This conference was held in the wider context of the EU Cyber Security Strategy and Directive published (07.02) by the European Commission. The ED also met with industry and other stakeholder representatives, and made an overview of some of the latest Agency studies and reports; e.g. Cyber Incident reporting; Status of Article 13a, See First annual cyber incidents reports, a) First annual report of cyber incidents in the EU: 51 severe outages reported over 2011 And on gaps, b) EU agency ENISA analyses cyber security legislation & spots implementation gaps; incidents remain undetected or not reported Implementing Guidelines, c) Clarifying cyber security incident reporting: guidelines on how to implement the new telecom legislation on security & integrity “Art 13a” Cyber Europe 2012 Exercise 2012,  Critical Information Infrastructure Protection and resilience Computer Emergency Teams,  among other themes.   Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA and ITRE discuss cyber insurance

ENISA’s Expert, Dr. Konstantinos Moulinos, attended a meeting with various Members of the ITRE Committee to discuss cyber insurance, i.e. contracts which cover a broad range of issues relating to threats in cyberspace.

The maturity of a market for cyber-insurance is still uncertain, thus the incentives and barriers in this field have to be weighed carefully. Although cyber insurance is a very good choice of risk handover for the asset owner (insurers), there is a lack of solid and independent cyber security evidence on the strength and growth of this market. For this reason, ENISA considers that information sharing and incident reporting are the foundations for the cyber insurance market to progress and improve. For the full ENISA presentation on Cyber Insurance ENISA's report on Incentives and barriers of the cyber insurance market in Europe Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

EP meeting on protection of Critical Information Infrastructures

ENISA's Head of Secure Infrastructures and Services Dr. Ouzounis, took part in in the European Parliament’s meeting on the protection of Critical Information Infrastructures.

The gathering was organised by the Kosciuszko Institute and was attended by several senior cyber security experts from the public and private sector. The meeting was kicked off by MEP Dr. Renate Sommer, a Rapporteur of the 2008/114/CE Directive on the Protection of European Critical Infrastructures to the European Parliament, and MEP Niki Tzavela, the Shadow rapporteur. Dr. Ouzounis presented ENISA's activities in the area of Critical Information Infrastructures and explained how the Agency assists Member States and private organisation to improve the security and resilience of their critical infrastructures. More information about ENISA's work in the area of Critical Information Infrastructures can be found here: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/activities/Resilience-and-CIIP Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Safer Internet Day 2013

Tuesday 5th February is Safer internet Day (SID), when countries across the world focus on ensuring safe and secure Internet access for all.

SID is organised by internet safety network, Insafe in February of each year to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially amongst children and young people across the world. ENISA is a corporate member of SID, and is very pleased to be associated with the event. Co-funded by the European Union, Safer Internet Day 2013 is the event's tenth anniversary, and the theme for the day is 'Online rights and responsibilities', when users will be encouraged to 'Connect with respect'. For more details of Safer Internet Day, and events near to you, visit: www.saferinternetday.org Vice President and Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes video message for safer internet day 2013 Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA agreement endorsed

Major step in political process for a new ENISA mandate.

The EU Council today (01/02/2013) announced that the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER - the Member States' EU Ambassadors) has endorsed the agreement reached on 29th January between the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council. (For more detail, see "Political Agreement reached on new mandate for ENISA") The next step in the process is that the European Parliament's ITRE (Industry, Research and Energy) Committee  vote on the text. This vote is scheduled for 20th February. If approved, the Parliament will vote on it in full plenary, scheduled for 16th April. The Council will then take its decision after the Parliament's plenary vote. For the full Council's announcement Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Largest cyber security exercise “Cyber Europe 2012’’ report published in 23 languages

ENISA has published the new report of the largest ever pan-Europe cyber security exercise, Cyber Europe 2012, which is available in 23 languages. Almost 600 individual players participated, including actors from the private sector (financial, telecom and Internet), for the first time. The conclusion: for fast and effective response to cyber incidents, knowledge of procedures and information flows is crucial.

The scope, scale and complexity of “Cyber Europe 2012” in figures: Twenty-nine EU (European Union) and EFTA (European Free Trade Association) Member States were involved in the exercise; twenty-five as active players and four as observers. In addition, several EU-Institutions also participated. Overall, 339 organisations took part, totalling 571 individual players being exposed to thousands of incidents (‘injects’). They included: cyber-security agencies and organisations, relevant ministries, e-government services, financial institutions (60), Internet Service Providers (ISPs) (60), and telecommunication operators. The majority (88%) of the exercise players rated it positively. Cyber Europe 2012 attracted considerable global media attention; more than 600 articles were published in 19 languages. Key Findings (excerpts)  Knowledge of procedures and information flows is crucial for fast and effective response Frequent cooperation and information exchange between public and private players is necessary Public–private cooperation structures differ among countries. Parallel, and sometimes overlapping, public and private procedures on the national level thus challenged national level cooperation Countries faced challenges in crisis management decision making, although this was not included in the exercise objectives (e.g., decisions have to be taken at more strategic levels) Scalability of operational procedures was a challenge, due to the large number of countries Up-to-date technical infrastructures and tools were critical for effective cooperation Efficient planning is crucial for conducting large-scale exercises Key recommendations More pan-European and national cyber exercises are necessary to improve cross country cyber crisis cooperation, which the ENISA Good Practice Guide on National Exercises supports. EU Member States and EFTA countries should improve the effectiveness, scalability, and knowledge of existing mechanisms, procedures and information flows for both national and international cooperation More training in crisis procedures is necessary for all cyber-crisis stakeholders Increased private sector involvement at the national level should be considered for future exercises Input from other European critical sectors (e.g. energy, transportation) is a good next step. The Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht, concluded: “Cyber Europe 2012 was an important milestone to build trust, to better understand the existing European cyber cooperation mechanisms, and to strengthen Europe’s cyber-incident management” For full report in all 23 EU official languages : Cyber Europe 2012 - Key findings report Background: The first Cyber Europe exercise in 2010,COM/2009/149, Digital Agenda for Europe, and COM/2011/163. For interviews; Ulf Bergstrom, Spokesman, press@enisa.europa.eu, mobile: +30 6948 460 143, or Dr Panagiotis Trimintzios, Exercise Director, resilience@enisa.europa.eu

Political Agreement reached on new mandate for ENISA

Τhe Irish EU Presidency has announced the successful conclusion of discussions on a new mandate for ENISA. The news came yesterday evening (29th January) following an agreement reached in the final trialogue meeting between the EU Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission.

The conclusion is a key step towards a new EU Regulation that will confirm ENISA’s remit and enhance its ability to support cyber security for Europe.   The agreement is subject to final approval by the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER ), and will “lead to a more robust, reinforced Agency, better able to meet the technological challenges and demands facing the EU now and in the future,” the Irish EU Presidency concludes. European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes (responsible for ENISA and cybersecurity) commented: "A political agreement on the renewed mandate of ENISA was reached this evening at the third trialogue that took place in the European Parliament. This is a timely development, particularly in light of the Cyber Security Strategy and legislative proposal on network and information security which will be adopted by the Commission shortly." The Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht added: “On behalf of all at ENISA, I would like to thank everyone involved in this successful conclusion to the trialogue. We welcome these positive signals and this increased focus on cyber security. We will follow the further final steps of the legislative process with keen interest. Assuming that this political agreement is adopted, and all goes as foreseen, ENISA will have a stable framework to support robust cyber security in Europe, to the benefit of citizens, businesses and the European economy.” Background: The Commission is planning to adopt an EU Cybersecurity Strategy and related directive on 7 February ENISA's mandate will be for 7 years from the official publication of the agreement.    Full Irish Presidency news text Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA supports the European Data Protection Day-28 January

The European Commission today highlights the European Data Protection Day 2013: Full speed ahead towards reliable and modern EU data protection laws, pointing to its reform proposal. European Commission Press release  in the Data Protection Day 28 January (available in 21 languages.) Furthermore, the European Data Protection Supervisor, the EDPS arranges a conference today in the European Parliament, and has produced a video message to celebrate this day. In its press release the EDPS underlines that “data protection is essential across all EU policy areas.’’ ENISA supports the European Data Protection Day and has just participated in the Computers, Privacy & Data Protection conference discussing these issues. Furthermore, in 2012 the Agency has written several reports, which received wide media attention, to identify the technical challenges for ensuring citizen’s rights to privacy. The Right To Be Forgotten Privacy a fundamental right between economics and practice - two studies on monitising privacy and data collection Privacy and tracking An earlier sample e.g. 2011: Bittersweet Cookies-online concerns In 2012, the Agency also co-organised the first Annual Privacy Forum.   Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Modernisation & reform proposal for Data Protection

On 25 January 2012, the European Commission proposed a comprehensive reform of the EU's 1995 data protection rules to strengthen online privacy rights and boost Europe's digital economy.

The Commission's proposals update and modernise the principles enshrined in the 1995 Data Protection Directive to bring them into the digital age. They include a proposal for a Regulation setting out a general EU framework for data protection, and a proposal for a Directive on protecting personal data processed for the purposes of prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of criminal offences and related judicial activities. For full details (in several languages). Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA supports the European Year of Citizens

ENISA, as an EU Agency and body of expertise is pleased to be part of the European Commission’s and Vice President Viviane Reding’s recent inauguration of this year’s theme: European Year of Citizens 2013.

The European Year of Citizens 2013 is dedicated to the rights that come with EU citizenship. Over this year, the Commission will encourage dialogue between all levels of government, civil society and business at events and conferences around Europe to discuss those EU rights, and build a vision of how the EU should be in 2020. Focus on citizens The European Union is made of its citizens and for its citizens. Local authorities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), think tanks, trade unions, universities or others, will this year be promoting Europe’s shared history and values, and fostering a sense of ownership for how the EU develops. These projects will bring people together to talk about the EU integration, policies and values, enhance mutual understanding between them, boost their awareness of the societal impact of EU policies and encourage them to participate in shaping the future of the EU. We hope that you will participate in debating our common future.   Your Europe:Here you can find practical help and advice for EU nationals and their family regarding e.g. health, travels, work & retirement, buying vehicles abroad, living abroad, education & youth, as well as family and consumers. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Davos: Commissioner and VP Kroes; speech on the forthcoming Cybersecurity Strategy for the EU -mentions ENISA

Yesterday, 24/01, Commissioner and Vice President Neelie Kroes made a key note speech in Davos, on the forthcoming Cyber Security Strategy of the EU, and mentioned ENISA in this context.

Commissioner Kroes underlined e.g. that “cybersecurity is a matter that cannot be left to the technical people. It is a matter for board levels. But we also need to transform the risk story into a growth story.  The big opportunities of the digital economy will not be realised if people are worried about security and do not trust networks and systems.” The Cybersecurity Strategy for the EU is planned to be presented soon and will focus on the need to improve the overall resilience of network and information systems, including by stimulating the competitiveness of the ICT industry, as well as user demand for security functionalities in ICT products and services. To strengthen cyber resilience and network and information security, the Strategy will be accompanied by a proposal for a Directive on Network and Information Security (NIS) across the EU, to ensure the smooth functioning of the internal market. In the speech, Commissioner Kroes details, among other things; “The proposal requires the Member States to be appropriately equipped. The Member States' NIS competent authorities would also be required to cooperate with each other at EU level. The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) is to support this process by providing its technical expertise and advice.” and “The Commission will also propose to extend the obligations to adopt NIS risk management measures and to report significant incidents to national authorities, to new sectors which are vital for our economy and society (energy, transport, banking, healthcare, key Internet companies).” Finally, Commissioner Kroes concludes that “cybersecurity is too important to be left to the goodwill of companies.” For full speech. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Paulo Empadinhas has joined ENISA as the Agency’s Head of Administration

A citizen of Portugal, Paulo comes to ENISA from the European External Action Service, where he led the Procurement Department in Iraq. From 2007 to 2011 he worked for the United Nations in several countries in Africa, as Regional Cluster Manager.

  Between 2000 and 2004 Paulo was the General Director for a multinational consulting company in Portugal, after which he worked for a number of international organisations. These included the Council of Europe Civil Crises Management, where he was Head of Administration in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 2004 and 2007. Paulo has a Master’s degree in Mathematics, is a Master in Management and Industrial Strategy, and holds a post-graduate qualification in Marketing.         Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Future role of ENISA amongst Irish Presidency’s key priorities

Pat Rabbitte, Irish Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources told the ITRE (Industry, Research and Energy) Committee on 23 January that the completion of the Digital Agenda and the future role of ENISA in countering cyber-attacks are amongst the top items  to be determined in the next six months. The topics are main priorities of Ireland's Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers. Other key areas include  the trans-European guidelines for telecommunications,  legislation on the re-use of public information, the 'Connecting Europe Facility' and the law on the safety of offshore oil and gas activities . Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Fast links to 2012 reports

Fast links to ENISA reports

ENISA issued over 30 reports in 2012, as well as organising a range of workshops, high-level events and other activities. Areas covered ranged from smart grids to the use of personal devices in the workplace. Among the most popular downloads were reports on cloud computing and national cyber security strategies.  To find fast links to all of the reports produced as part of ENISA's 2012 Work Programme, click here.  Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA’s input to the W.E.F. (World Economic Forum) Global Risk Report 2013

ENISA’s contribution to the World Economic Forum (WEF) report, Global Risk 2013 has been acknowledged in advance of the WEF’s Davos-Klosters annual meeting (23-27 January).

The acknowledgement, in the report’s introductory pages, refers to ENISA’s input in the context of assessing the risks of Massive Digital Misinformation. This was done by examining how hyper-connectivity can enable potential “digital wildfires”, where the rapid spread of misinformation across the Internet can have massive impacts in, for example, the financial and political worlds. The global risk of Massive Digital Misinformation sits at the centre of a constellation of technological and geopolitical risks ranging from terrorism to cyber attacks and the failure of global governance. The report is one of the main items that world leaders will discuss  in two weeks’ time  at the Davos-Klosters meeting in Switzerland. For more information, go to: http://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2013 http://reports.weforum.org/global-risks-2013/risk-case-1/digital-wildfires-in-a-hyperconnected-world/ Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

New report on top trends in the first Cyber Threat Landscape by EU’s cyber Agency ENISA

The EU’s cyber security agency ENISA has published the first and most comprehensive Cyber Threat Landscape analysis of 2012, summarising over 120 threat reports. The report identifies and lists the top threats and their trends, and concludes that drive-by exploits have become the top web threat.

The ENISA Threat Landscape report summarises 120 recent reports from 2011 and 2012 from the security industry, networks of excellence, standardisation bodies and other independent parties, making the report the world’s most comprehensive synthesis presently available. The report provides an independent overview of observed threats and threat agents together with the current top threats, and emerging threats trends landscapes. Moreover, the Threat Landscape report analyses the “cyber enemy”; identifying and also listing the top ten (out of a total of sixteen) threats in emerging technology areas. The areas considered are Mobile Computing, Social Media/Technology, Critical Infrastructure, Trust Infrastructures, Cloud, and Big Data. The identified top ten threats are: Drive-by exploits (malicious code injects to exploit web browser vulnerabilities) Worms/trojans Code injection attacks Exploit kits (ready to use software package to automate cybercrime) Botnets (hijacked computers that are remotely controlled) (Distributed) Denial of Service attacks (DDoS/DoS) Phishing (fraud mails and websites) Compromising confidential information (data breaches) Rogueware/scareware Spam   Finally, the Agency makes a number of conclusions for industry and stakeholders on how to better fight cyber threats to business, citizens and the digital economy at large: Use a common terminology within threat reports Include the end-user perspective Develop use cases for threat landscapes Collect security intelligence of incidents including starting point and target of an attack Perform a shift in security controls to accommodate emerging threat trends Collect and develop better evidence about attack vectors (methods) so as to understand attack workflows Collect and develop better evidence on the impact reached by attackers Collect and maintain more qualitative information about threat agents   The Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht stated: "I am proud that the Agency undertakes this important work to better understand the composition of the current cyber threats. This is the first and most comprehensive Cyber Threat Analysis available to date and a point of reference for all cyber security policy makers, and stakeholders" For full report, listing all threats and conclusions in-depth For interviews; Graeme Cooper, Head of Public Affairs, mobile: +30 6951 782 268, or Ulf Bergstrom, Spokesman, + 30 6948 460 143, press@enisa.europa.eu or Dr Louis Marinos, louis.marinos@enisa.europa.eu Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Security is key for BYOD

Whether it’s a laptop, tablet or smartphone, more and more of us are choosing to “bring your own device” (BYOD) to carry out tasks in the workplace, or perform work activities from home or other locations. The trend, also known as consumerization of IT (COIT), can be very attractive to both employers and workers, offering flexibility both ways.

ENISA’s new report, Consumerization of IT: Risk Mitigation Strategies and Good Practices looks at the latest developments, and delivers six key messages to help ensure that “bring your own device” doesn’t also bring unforeseen risks.  Aimed at Chief Information Officers, Chief Executives and others who take IT security decisions, the report’s messages are: 1. Ensure that governance aspects are derived from business processes and protection requirements, and are defined before dealing with technology. 2. End-user involvement can effectively mitigate risks. Awareness-raising on COIT programmes is highly effective for the enforcement of security policies. 3. Periodic risk assessment on COIT programmes should be undertaken to ensure that security policies remain compatible with evolving technologies. 4. Keep in mind that encryption complements but does not replace strategic risk management within a COIT programme. 5. Perform small steps initially and proceed with more complex policies when sufficient experience has been gained. 6. It is important to identify which COIT risks need to be mitigated within your organisation while the window of opportunity till remains open The report builds on ENISA’s October 2012 publication, Consumerization of IT: Top Risks and Opportunities, and was produced by ENISA with input and comments from a group of experts from industry, academia and public sector organisations.    For the full report: Consumerization of IT: Risk Mitigation Strategies and Good Practices Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Commission adopts roadmap for reform of EU-Agencies

The Commission has just adopted a roadmap for improved efficiency and accountability, greater coherence and transparency, and more balanced governance of the EU's decentralised agencies. The document puts flesh on the bones of the 'Common Approach' – the first ever political agreement on EU agencies, reached by the Commission, Council and European Parliament in July 2012 after three years of analysis and negotiations.

Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič commented: "The greater efficiencies this roadmap will deliver are vital when rationalisation efforts are top of the political agenda. But it is not just about saving money. The document sets out, in a very clear way, a whole series of measures that will improve the performance, governance and transparency of our agencies. This will help agencies to deliver EU policies even better than they do today." Timeline For actions where the Commission is responsible, an ambitious deadline is set for the end of 2014. Yet, the roadmap highlights several actions which the Commission considers a priority, and it will already implement these in 2013 (where relevant in co-operation with the agencies or other institutions). They include: preventing and managing conflicts of interest in the agencies, for members of the Management Board and Directors, experts in scientific committees, and members of Boards of Appeal; including key performance indicators in agencies' annual work programmes and for agencies' Executive Directors; developing standard provisions to be included in agencies' host state agreements, based on existing best practice; developing guidelines with agencies on applying activity-based budgeting and activity-based management; elaborating guidelines for regular evaluations.   For full European Commission press release in English Other languages : FR DE DA ES NL IT SV PT FI EL CS ET HU LT LV MT PL SK SL BG RO Link: Roadmap on the follow-up to the Common Approach on EU decentralised agencies Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Calls for tenders now launched for assisting ENISA with its 2013 Work Programme

http://www.enisa.europa.eu/procurement Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

New report on Smart Grids cyber security measures; a risk-based approach is key to secure implementation, according to EU Agency ENISA

The EU’s cyber security agency ENISA has investigated the challenges for baseline smart grids protection in Europe. This new report assists smart grid providers to improve their cyber security and resilience of their infrastructures, with a set of minimum security measures.

In contrast to the US’ strict regulatory path, the European approach is to allow a certain degree of ‘freedom’, where these guidelines above can be tailored and combined for the needs of different actors, given the varied market. The Agency therefore proposes a scalability of around 40 (39) security measures which are organised into three levels of sophistication and ten (10) domains:   Security governance & risk management; Third parties management; Secure lifecycle process for smart grid components/systems and operating procedures; Personnel security, awareness and training; Incident response & information sharing; Audit and accountability; Continuity of operations; Physical security; Information systems security; and Network security.   The adoption of a minimum set of security measures needs the consensus and cooperation of various smart grid stakeholders. A coordination initiative could allow a common and generally accepted approach to smart grid security issues. Moreover, a common cyber security approach would help both regulators and stakeholders by harmonising the complex smart grid’s environment and bproviding incentives to improve cyber security. This report can therefore assist the EU by: Aligning the varying levels of security and resilience of the market operators with a consistent minimum national framework; Providing an indication of minimum levels of security and resilience in the Member States with regards to the smart grids Ensuring minimum levels on requirements for smart grids across Member States, thus reducing compliance and operational costs; Setting the baseline for a minimum auditable control framework across Europe; Facilitating preparedness, recovery, response measures and mutual aid of operators during crisis; Contributing to achieve an adequate level of transparency in the internal market.   The Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht, commented; “In order to reach the ambitious EU2020 objectives: 20% of renewable energy, 20% of CO2 emissions reduction and 20% increase in energy efficiency, it is a key issue to ensure that the roll-out of smart grids for distributed energy generation into future electricity grid is done in a secure way. Both innovative technical solutions are required, along with new suitable EU regulatory and economic schemes. We hope to see smart grids in the forthcoming Cyber Security Strategy of the EU.”   For full report For interviews; Ulf Bergstrom, Spokesman, press@enisa.europa.eu, +30 6948 460 143, or Dr Konstantinos Moulinos, resilience@enisa.europa.eu Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Just published: Summarising report of successful first pilot European Cyber Security Month

The report provides a synthesis of the results of the successful European Cyber Security Month (ECSM). This was the first, pilot project which took place across Europe throughout last October 2012, and a point of the EU-USA Summit's Working Group on Cyber Security roadmap. The report gives an overview of the security-related weeks organised at national level by the eight participating countries - the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom, and supported by Latvia and the Council. It furthermore describes ENISA's role as coordinator of the organisation of the ECSM; and finally identifies a set of lessons learned which could be applied to future ECSMs.

  Main findings of the ECSM pilot: the majority of the Member States hold a security week or weeks; the proportion of campaigns encompassing general users versus those targeting business users is almost the same; a wide variety of key messages are promoted across the different European countries; the largest number of events were organised in the fourth week of October; all supporting material and communications were produced in the official language of the countries concerned; printed materials (38 %) and physical events, (25 %) featured in many cases; all Member States used a variety of techniques that were fun, exciting and motivating;fu the private sector was involved in six pilot countries; the wide variety of delivery channels used suggests the potential value of a multifaceted approach that could match different messages to different media and opportunities across all sectors and countries; websites are the most prominent channels of communication used, together with the distribution of giveaways (seven out of eight pilot countries); the Member States adopted different methods to assess the effectiveness of ECSM activities — generally, the data gathered can be used to identify very similar key performance indicators.   The second part of the report provides detailed information on the activities and events organised by each country.  For full report For ECSM material     Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Report looks at improving emergency communications

Communications technology is an essential for emergency services to respond to crisis situations. The way that organisations communicate, both internally, and externally with other emergency responders, can make the difference between a serious situation developing into a crisis that can have life-changing or even fatal consequences.

This report ENISA looks at how the technology and processes used in emergency response could be improved, with the aim of providing guidance to policymakers in EU Member States and EU organisations. For the report, interviews were conducted with a range of people working directly in crisis response, as well as representatives from regulatory areas and service provision. The aim was to identify good practices and highlight potential gaps and barriers to effective crisis communications.  In post-crisis reviews of major incidents, inter-agency communications are often identified as a problem. The report highlights a range of issues that can contribute to difficulties, and which, if corrected, could make emergency communications far more effective. Issues include the development of different communications standards and practices between, for example, police and ambulance services, and technology failure in crisis situations. Based on the report’s findings, ENISA makes a series of recommendations to Member State governments, competent authorities, service providers and the bodies of the European Union aimed at:  Developing improved inter-agency crisis communications technology and procedures Defining standards in crisis communications technology and procedures Encouraging the uptake of data services in emergency communications, particularly in the area of public interaction             For the full Report: Emergency Communications Stocktaking Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

In focus: Status report 2012 on Computer Emergency Response Teams baseline capabilities launched by EU Agency ENISA

The EU’s cyber security agency ENISA has launched two new reports: 1. The Status Report 2012 for CERTs which provides a state-of-play overview of national/governmental CERTs’ capabilities (n/g CERTs) and concludes that the key challenge is the diversity of capabilities across Member States in Europe. 2. The accompanying report on updated recommendations for n/g CERTs addresses remaining gaps and shortcomings.

The need for a functional network of n/g CERTs in Europe by the end of 2012 was established in several EU documents (Digital Agenda for Europe/EU’s Internal Security Strategy/the CIIP Communication). The Status Report 2012 states that the key obstacle to cross-border cooperation and incident response is the diversity of capabilities across Member States. Some teams do not have an ‘adequate level of maturity’ compared with the teams in other Member States. Four baseline capabilities constitute the focus of the report:  Excerpts of key findings for n/g CERTs; 1. Mandate & strategy: -Most n/g CERTs have a clear role and mandate, yet the details and form vary greatly across the EU. -A great deal of work needs to be done regarding the proper inclusion of n/g CERTs in national cyber-security strategies; presently, less than 50% of the Member States have such strategies.  2. Service portfolio: The scope of support depends on the type of constituent: key constituents (e.g. governmental bodies) receive the complete service portfolio. The valuable cyber security expertise of n/g CERTs is also highly sought by law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders. 3. Operational capability: More than 80% employ 6–8 full-time staff, which is the minimum level necessary for acceptable services. However, in smaller teams, staff have multiple roles, which is a barrier to specialisation. In particular, n/g CERTs report difficulties in hiring digital forensics and reverse engineering specialists. 4. Cooperation capability: As large-scale cyber-incidents necessitates both national and international management, n/g CERTs are well anchored in international structures like (FIRST, TF-CSIRT, EGC, Trusted Introducer, APWG or ENISA workshops). The Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht, stated; “These two reports show that while great progress has been made in Europe recently, more work is necessary to bridge the different maturity levels of CERTs. The identified challenges: questions of clarity of governmental CERT roles and responsibilities, lack of funding and missing resources such as highly specialised IT, legal, and PR experts must be addressed. These challenges need to be resolved by many parties: legislators, CERT teams, cooperation partners and international organisations.” For full reports: Status Report 2012 for CERTs Updated recommendations 2012 For interviews; Ulf Bergstrom, Spokesman, press@enisa.europa.eu, mobile: +30 6948 460 143, or Andrea Dufkova, Expert, opsec@enisa.europa.eu Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Watch the new video clip on Cyber Europe 2012

Training to better manage cyber-attacks.

This eight minutes video clip provides a detailed overview of how to better the cyber cooperation, and improving the resilience of the critical information infrastructure. This video is explaining ENISA's role and track record in the field of international, cross-border exercises, looking at how to test national  and international communications and cyber crisis cooperation mechanisms. During the exercise the participants were exposed to more than 1000 incidents, which they had to manage through collaboration across the borders, as to protect the society and economy of Europe. For the Cyber Europe Video Clip For more information on Cyber Europe 2012 Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Successful collaborative cyber security awareness raising - Large Scale Pilot for EU SME business & citizens;two new reports launched by EU Agency ENISA on the European Information Sharing and Alert System (EISAS)

The EU’s cyber security Agency ENISA has run a Large Scale Pilot project for the European Information Sharing and Alerting System – EISAS to better prepare EU business and citizens facing cyber threats. The EISAS Large Scale Pilot Report, details its successful actions, and identifies the cost-effectiveness of European awareness raising collaboration, while the EISAS Updated Roadmap foresee future actions for EISAS.

A recent Eurobarometer survey reveals that most EU citizens (59%) feel unprepared to protect their online information. Moreover, cyber security is generally in the hands of specialists who implement technical solutions. Citizens and SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) are left out of this action, despite the fact that end users’ cyber security awareness is ‘the first line of defence’ against cyber threats. The EISAS Large Scale Pilot involved national and governmental Computer Emergency Response Teams, public and private organisations involved in awareness raising in four EU Member States: Germany, Hungary, Poland and Spain as well as Norway. All the pilot participants cooperated in cross-border awareness-raising efforts. This empowered citizens and SMEs with the necessary skills and security knowledge to protect themselves from major cyber threats: Botnets, identity theft and social engineering. The awareness material was translated, adapted and disseminated to target audiences in each Member State. Finally, the pilot reached more than 1700 European citizens and employees with tailored security information, using social media, public websites, and targeted mailing lists as communication channels for targeting EU citizens and SMEs. This pilot demonstrated that the EISAS approach of European collaboration in awareness raising works. The successful pilot results now need to be sustained by a brokering actor. In the pilot, ENISA had this role, but it now has to be transferred to a collaborative community of willing stakeholders. In this regard, the Directorate General for Home Affairs’ NISHA project –Network for Information Sharing and Alerting is a promising candidate for such information brokerage. In 2013, ENISA will support EISAS by running a study to identify the suitable actors and organisation for its full deployment. The Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht, remarked; “No firewall or security policy can efficiently protect users unless they are aware of the risks. Therefore, the EISAS pilot is important for the European citizens and businesses, in particular the SMEs, constituting 98% of the European economy.”   For EISAS Large Scale Pilot Report For EISAS 2012 Roadmap Background documents: 2011 EISAS basic toolset. EU’s Internal Security Strategy. For interviews; Ulf Bergstrom, Spokesman, press@enisa.europa.eu, mobile: +30 6948 460 143, or Romain Bourgue, Expert, opsec@enisa.europa.eu     Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Final report of the 7th CERT workshop, this year jointly arranged by ENISA-Europol on fighting cybercrime

The Agency has launched the public report on the ENISA -Europol jointly organised 7th annual CERT Workshop, Part II. This workshop was as a follow up event to the successful 6th Annual CERT workshop held last year in Prague, in the Czech Republic.

The 2012 CERT workshop was held at the Europol premises in The Hague, 16-17 October 2012. The focus remained on cooperation between national/governmental CERTs (n/g CERTs) in Europe and their national Law Enforcement counterparts (LEAs). (See earlier news item ) Composition of participants Out of a total number of 44 participants, 15 represented the national/governmental CERT, 12 the national Law Enforcement Agency (usually the high tech crime units). The other participants were experts from Industry as well as from international organisations. Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, United Kingdom were the EU Member States that participated as well as Norway and Switzerland. Workshop focus The focus was on how to increase an exchange of information on cybercrime threats, and the cooperation and collaboration on a practical working level between n/g CERT and LEA communities, both on a national and cross-border level. There is an urgent need for these two communities to collaborate more and better, because of their complementary responsibilities. A mutual cooperation is a win-win situation for both communities, because both CERTs and LEAs can learn from and support each other in the fight against cybercrime. Currently, in many cases this collaboration is very limited and sometimes even non-existent. The workshop aimed to identify these synergies as well as gaps and to practically address these obstacles of cooperation. Practical cooperation After four keynote speeches, three interactive working sessions, in detail presented in the report, followed on: Botnet mitigation, (including e.g. Is botnet mitigation a business case for CERTs?) Capacity building (including e.g. Case studies, Data protection, and Exercises) Workflows and incident response; (including; e.g. Inventory of information sources and how they are managed, Need for a global directory; incompatible priorities, Internet Service Provider’s role, Intelligence and evidence collection, as well as takedown and sink-holing).   For full, detailed workshop report:  7th annual CERT Workshop Report For overview of ENISA CERT activities: CERT Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Final Report on the Annual Privacy Forum 2012

The final report on the first Annual Privacy Forum  (APF’12)  has just been published, looking at the events organisation, visibility, and message aspects. The report also issues recommendations and conclusions. Key recommendations Among the key recommendations of the Forum; There is  a need for more privacy respecting tools, Research should seek innovative tools to empower users by enhancing transparency, Empirical understanding of data flows should be the starting point for actors agendas, and that Data Protection Agencies should analyse market-failures in privacy technology, and intervene with scientific and economic precision.   For full report, recommendations and conclusions; Annual Privacy Forum Report   About the event The Forum was co-organised by the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) and the European Commission Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT), with the support of the Department of Computer Science of the University of Cyprus. APF’12 was endorsed as an official event of the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the European Union. www.privacyforum.eu Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Investing in Security for ROI?

ENISA's new report "Return On Security Investment" initiates a discussion among the ‘Digital Fire Brigades’ or Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) to create the basic tools and best practices to calculate their Return on Security Investment (ROSI) while it can operate as a tool to justify their business need and existence through their financial added value.

Financial Gains of Cyber Security Assessing the cost-effectiveness of CERTs should take into account the beneficial actions that CERTs achieve by contributing to detect, handle, recover from and deter incidents early and efficiently. Thus, security is not usually seen as an investment that provides profit, but rather loss prevention. Security Metrics The FIRST Metrics SIG (Forum for Incident Response and Security Teams) is working to improve the metrics and evaluation methods for internal evaluation of CERTs and address the topic of cost of incidents and return on security investment. Interesting questions: What is the right amount an organization should invest in protecting information? Is an organisation paying too much for its security? For the full Report: Return On Security Investment Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA to work with Greece’s government on secure e-services for citizens

ENISA has met with the Greek government to discuss how the agency can support secure electronic government (e-gov) services for citizens.

The meeting, between Deputy Minister of Administrative Reform and E-Governance, Manousos Voloudakis and ENISA’s Executive Director, Professor Udo Helmbrecht, was held at the Ministry’s Athens offices, on Friday, 7th December, 2012. The workshop was attended by the General Secretary of Information Systems (Ministry of Finance), Mr. Harry Theoharis and representatives of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Public Order and Citizen Protection, the Ministry of Labour, Social Security and Welfare, the Police Force, the Hellenic Data Protection Authority, the Hellenic Telecommunications & Post Commission, the Informatics Development Agency, the Special Managing Authority of the Operational Programme “Adminstrative Reform”, the “e-Government Center for Social Security” SA and “Information Society” SA. Discussions explored how, as an agency based in Greece and serving the whole of Europe, ENISA can offer its expertise to support the on-going development of electronic government services for Greece’s citizens. In his opening Vice Minister Voloudakis stressed that the introduction of electronic government services that respect the privacy and free will of citizens is among the highest priorities for Greece. In this context, e-Governance is considered as one of the basic conditions for the creation of an effective public administration. At the same time it enables the reduction of bureaucracy and of the overall cost of public administration operations, as well as increasing transparency. Professor Helmbrecht, together with other experts from ENISA, also outlined the Agency’s wider work, describing how ENISA supports initiatives such as Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs), secure information infrastructure protection and privacy protection with Member States. Across Europe, e-government is already providing fast, secure and cost-effective services in areas such as: social security and welfare  car and vehicle services education healthcare safety at work public information Professor Helmbrecht said: “E-gov services offer massive potential to enhance people’s lives and, crucially for us all at this time, kick-start economic activity. But whether we’re talking about e-gov or commercial services, information security must be of the highest level. If it is not, the benefits will not be realised. The work already undertaken by Minister Voloudakis and his team is very positive. ENISA will continue to give its support so that Greece’s citizens can benefit from more fast, cost-effective and secure e-gov services, and our press releases also exist in Greek, as to get the message out by Greek media and governmental bodies to the Greek society.” Vice Minister Voloudakis stressed: “The collaboration with ENISA is of essence and concerns the common effort for efficient and secure electronic services. The government’s strategy on e-Governance has set as a high priority to create a Digital Public Administration that will be able to gradually provide more of its services to the citizens online, with the landmark being to have all public services online by the end of 2015. However, I want to stress that this will be achieved with full respect to the privacy and free will of citizens. A key factor in accomplishing this important condition is choosing to deploy an e-identification model that will be optional while securing the citizens’ personal data. That is why we study and carefully evaluate the different deployments in other countries before deciding our approach.”    For agenda and presentations of the Meeting Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the EU at today’s ceremony

Today, the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony took place in Oslo, Norway. As announced on 12th October, for 2012 it was awarded to the EU. Excerpt of the motivation; "The union and its forerunners have for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe." The full presentation speech by the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Thorbjørn Jagland; http://nobelpeaceprize.org/en_GB/laureates/laureates-2012/presentation-2012/ As an EU-Agency, ENISA is humbly pleased and proud to be part of this bigger, historical EU-context of our daily work on cyber security, and of the honour to be bestowed with this reward. History of the Nobel Peace Prize. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Education-the first step to cyber security ; new report launched ''Collaborative Solutions For Network Information Security in Education''

This report, ‘Collaborative Solutions For Network Information Security in Education’explores ways in which educators can get full use out of information technologies, while promoting and providing education on the importance of network information security.

The report is a continuation of the ENISA 2011 study ‘Network Information Security in Education: Consolidated ENISA contribution. The Agency advocates that brokerage of information is the basis of the learning cycle. As a proof point, the report provides practical examples with more action-based learning from  Austria, Luxembourg and Denmark and the respondents of the 'Findings from practice' survey. The main recommendation out of this work is that we should all learn from best practices of our peers and share our own experience. Can-do attitude We also recommend that a ‘can do’ attitude’ should be deployed by educators and their students of different age groups. Target Audience This report is aimed at educators, defined as trainers, teachers, peers involved in formal education and non-formal education, including life-long learning. Report outline The report consists of three parts: The results of the survey and consultations, The ENISA recommendations from 2012 deliverables and  Three case studies from Member States (Austria, Luxembourg and Denmark).                                 Why is this important? As Vice President and Commissioner Nellie Kroes stated when referring to digital tools, it is important to realise the huge benefit for economies, societies and democracies that are brought by such digital tools and to participate in the effort to ‘build a connected, competitive continent: an e-EU’.  Moreover, it is crucial to have secure digital communications and networks for the information society to function. It is ultimately a wallet issue for citizens, companies and the entire society. Education-the first step to cyber security Finally, in the report, we recommend to start with digital education as a first step for understanding Network and Information Security (NIS). For the full report and educational info-graphics: Collaborative Solutions For Network Information Security in Education For background: Related study on “Involving Intermediaries in Cyber Security Awareness Raising’’, focussing on cross-border cooperation, as well as for public-private collaboration and information exchange. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

New Roadmap for Computer Emergency Response (CERT) Training

ENISA has launched a new "Roadmap" document aimed at making training for Europe's Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) more effective.

The Roadmap focuses on finding solutions for how more proactive and efficient Computer Emergency Response (CERT) Training could be provided in Europe.Options and inputs from CERTs and other stakeholders were examined from different perspectives. During this work subject matter specialists shared their ideas, forming together a valuable and practical roadmap. Until 2012, ENISA’s work on the training of CERTs focused mainly on supporting the Training of Network Security Incident Teams Staff (TRANSITS) framework, organising various workshops and providing ENISA CERT exercise material. While these efforts were widely used and appreciated by the CERTs and other communities, the challenges and circumstances have now changed. Since ENISA started its training and support activities, the importance of managing information security incidents has grown to become a top priority for companies, government institutions, universities, schools, and EU Member States. CERTs have emerged in all sectors and countries, and the number of national and governmental CERTs is continuing to grow. This trend is expected to continue worldwide for the foreseeable future. The Roadmap focuses on proposals which will benefit most of the European CERT community: ENISA support to the TRANSITS Framework and other suitable training programmes ENISA CERT Exercises at universities ENISA as co-provider of CERT trainers and training CERT Training Information Desk Video material by ENISA – how to organise the exercises ‘Fire Drills’ for the CERT community ENISA CERT Training Hubs (ECTH) ENISA CERT Exercises Certified Provider (ECTCP) Recommendations for public administration organisations (national exercises) Certification paths The full Roadmap is available here: Roadmap to provide more proactive and efficient CERT training Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

The key to cyber security is cooperation amongst all players

The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) bridges the gap between citizens, industry and governments by acting as a knowledge broker in NIS matters and as a promoter of good NIS practices within EU Member States.

During its High Level Event in Brussels, on November 27, the Agency published a paper called «EU cyber cooperation: the digital frontline», calling for more concerted efforts in cyber security matters. You may find the paper here: EU Cyber Cooperation-The Digital Frontline Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

New ENISA report with US Homeland Security – cyber security awareness raising

ENISA and the European Commission have worked with the US Department of Homeland Security to produce a report on “Involving Intermediaries in Cyber Security Awareness Raising’’. In focus were mechanisms for cross-border cooperation, as well as for public-private collaboration and information exchange.

The report was one of the results of an EU-US workshop held earlier this year. The event brought together public bodies with experience in raising Network and Information Security (NIS) awareness, and private sector organisations working on Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and other initiatives. The event’s emphasis was on mechanisms for cross-border cooperation, as well as for public-private cooperation and information exchange. Key recommendations include awareness raising actions for PPPs. These are: Make companies aware that awareness raising will help to create business opportunities and make money, through building a favourable, security-conscious brand image Work on cyber security as a matter of cultural challenge and behavioural change. Have in mind the importance of not scaring the users - encourage them to get online but get safe at the same time. Do not start technical. This is about communication. Therefore, messages have to echo with the target audiences. Educate young users as good promoters of the security message - through them you can often reach their parents too. Start education early - the sooner this starts, the better the Internet behaviour. Consider media as a main channel, including social media networks, to get key messages out. Improve measurement of the impact and success of the awareness raising (use key performance indicators, KPIs). The challenge is to go from measuring activities to measuring outcomes. For Full Report For more information about the event Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Validation workshop on Minimum Security Measures for the European Smart Grid

Today, Thursday 29/11, ENISA conducts a validation workshop on the Minimum Security Measures for the European Smart Grid in Brussels. This is a validation workshop for the 'Minimum Security Measures for the Smart Grids' report due to be released by the end of this year.

The workshop objectives are to: validate with the stakeholders the findings of the ENISA study on minimum security measures for the European smart grids consult with the constituency the key areas of interest in the field of smart grid security   The ca 70 participants of the workshop are national authorities, EU officials, industry, hardware and software manufacturers, energy service providers and standardization bodies from EU.   For full details : ENISA Validation Workshop Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

New report on how to reinforce cooperation between EU Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) and Law Enforcement Authorities

The EU Agency ENISA has launched a new Good Practice Guide on co-operation and coordination between Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) and Law Enforcement Authorities (LEAs).

The report establishes that such cooperation is essential in the fight against cybercrime. The study focuses on identifying the current gaps and possible synergies, and provides five recommendations on how to improve cooperation. Europe’s society and digital economy are increasingly dependent upon cyber-space. Simultaneously, cyber-attacks on Critical Infrastructure such as energy, water and transportation systems, cyber-incidents, and cybercrime, such as botnet attacks and hacking, put the information society at risk. Moreover, most citizens - 59% - do not feel informed about cyber-crime risks.  ENISA’s new study finds that collaboration between CERTs and LEAs is hindered by their inherent cultural differences. CERTs are typically technical, informal and focused on addressing information system issues. LEAs, by comparison, act when they suspect that a crime has been committed. The report also identifies a number of legal and regulatory barriers. Specifically, it identified a discrepancy between a bigger awareness of national laws, compared to a smaller awareness of international legal frameworks (EU directives or the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention). A number of operational factors were also identified as playing a role in hindering information exchange and collaboration. Experts who participated in the study recognised that information on roles and parameters for cooperation were the most important issues. These were followed by concerns over bureaucracy, different or unknown policies and procedures, lack of common standards, lack of clarity on what the other party will do with information and insufficient or inappropriate detail. The report makes five key recommendations to overcome these barriers: training, improving structures to support information sharing, facilitation of collaboration, good practice development and harmonisation and clarification of legal and regulatory aspects.   These recommendations cover the expansion of training between CERTs and LEAs, establishing each stakeholder’s core competencies, capabilities and procedures, good practice on writing Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) and evidence sharing agreements, and further clarification for CERTs on tackling data protection issues. The Executive Director of ENISA Professor Udo Helmbrecht commented: “Computer Emergency Response Teams and Law Enforcement Agencies cover crucial but different aspects of cyber security. Cooperation between them is vital to properly protect our digital citizens and economy. However, until now little research was done on how to connect these two areas. This study contributes to better fighting cybercrime by identifying the collaboration challenges, and ways to overcome them.” For full report For background: COM/2011/163, (Flash Eurobarometer Cyber-Security) 2012 For interviews: Ulf Bergstrom, Spokesman, press@enisa.europa.eu, +30 6948 460 143, or Jo De Muynck, Seconded National Expert, at opsec@enisa.europa.eu Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA publishes Work Programme 2013

ENISA's Work Programme for 2013 has now been published. The programme is the result of a consultation process involving both the ENISA Permanent Stakeholder Group (PSG) and Management Board (MB). This process has enabled the Agency to increase its focus on areas that are both strongly aligned with the European policy agenda and also considered as core areas of competency for the Agency.

The content of the Work Programme is a logical extension of work carried out in previous years, but is increasingly focused on a common set of issues. In Work Stream 1 for example, which is concerned with understanding the evolving threat environment and defining suitable mitigation strategies, the areas of application are Critical Infrastructure and Trust Infrastructure. This focus on core issues will allow the Agency to exploit synergies between the different activities that constitute the work programme as a whole and is expected to provide stakeholders with a more holistic view of the state of Network and Information Security  in these areas.  As in previous years, ENISA recognises the need to avoid duplication of work and has sought to define activities that are complementary to those undertaken by other European bodies or by other stakeholder communities in general. More information: ENISA Work Programme 2013 Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

“Cooperation is key for Europe’s cyber security” – Conclusion of ENISA Brussels event (27/11)

A high-level event organised by Europe’s cyber security agency, ENISA recognised closer cyber cooperation and mutual support as key factors for boosting cyber security for Europe’s citizens, governments and businesses.

The meeting, held today (27th November) in Brussels, was led by ENISA’s Executive Director, Professor Udo Helmbrecht, and brought together key figures from the European Parliament, European Commission and the computer industry. Participants included Ms Amelia Andersdotter, MEP and Mr Anthony Whelan, representing the Commission as Head of Cabinet for Vice President and Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Mrs Neelie Kroes. They were joined by Mr Paul Timmers, Director at DG Connect. Industry representatives were Mr Paul Nicholas, Senior Director, at Microsoft, and Mr Tom Koehler, CEO at Cassidian Cybersecurity, Germany. ENISA is currently in the process of having its working remit renewed and revised, with a new Regulation being finalised by the European Parliament and Council of Ministers. The new Regulation will enable ENISA to better support Europe’s cyber security needs. European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes said: "The key to strong cyber security is sharing responsibility. That is the 'name of the game' for this event and for ENISA, and it's a more important challenge than ever as the role of the internet in our economy and society continues to grow rapidly." Professor Helmbrecht said:  “Europe’s information society depends on secure technology, well-built laws and policies and security-aware citizens. Our event today underlined that there is a strong need for closer cyber cooperation to build an even stronger level of European cyber security, for our citizens and Europe’s digital economy.”  At the conference, ENISA’s recent successes   in building cooperation between different cyber communities  was recognised. Examples included: Supporting the set-up of up new national Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) in Cyprus, Ireland, Malta and Romania Providing support for CERTS Close cooperation with the Commission, Member States & now private sector on cyber security exercises Conducting the first Europe-wide cyber security exercise with the private sector involved,- Cyber Europe 2012[1]   Facilitating the first Annual Privacy Forum held, with the close support of the Cyprus EU Presidency. ENISA’s ground-breaking role in producing the first ever comprehensive reports on cyber security breaches in Europe (under Article 13a of the EU telecoms directive) Other areas addressed included the need for common standards in cyber security, to better enable Europe’s IT industry to compete more effectively globally. Currently, other markets, notably the United States, are ahead of Europe in having common recognised standards.  Anthony Whelan provided the European Commission perspective, looking at the EU’s forthcoming Cyber Security Strategy, and also gave an update on the progress of the new ENISA Regulation.   For agenda of the event. For background: New ENISA regulation proposal  and EP status For interviews, please contact: Ulf Bergstrom, Spokesman, press@enisa.europa.eu,: +30 6948 460 143, or Graeme Cooper, Head of Public Affairs, +30 6951 782 268 [1] The exercise was Europe’s largest to date, with 400 participants across Europe, exposed to 1000 massive simulated cyber incidents, in an unprecedented scale of exercise. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA CERT Exercises and training material updated and extended

The Agency has launched an updated and expanded, comprehensive set of CERTs exercises consisting of a Handbook for teachers, a Toolset for students, and supporting material for hands-on training.

The study material is looking in detail at 23 different exercises tailored for CERTs, but also usable for a wider community. The exercises are ranging from triage and basic incident handling to forensic activities related to mobile devices.   For all material, https://www.enisa.europa.eu/activities/cert/support/exercise Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Cyber security according to Winnie the Pooh: new report by EU Agency ENISA on ‘digital trap’ honeypots to detect cyber-attacks creates a buzz

The EU ‘cyber security’ Agency ENISA is launching an in-depth study on 30 different ‘digital traps’ or honeypots that can be used by Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT)s and National/Government CERTs to proactively detect cyber-attacks. The study reveals barriers to understanding basic honeypot concepts and presents recommendations on which honeypot to use.

An increasing number of complex cyber-attacks demand better early warning detection capabilities for CERTs. Honeypots are, simplified, traps with the sole task of luring in attackers by mimicking a real computing resource (e.g. a service, application, system, or data). Any entity connecting to a honeypot is deemed suspicious, and all activity is monitored to detect malicious activity. This study is a follow-up to a recent ENISA report on Proactive Detection of Network Security Incidents. The previous report concluded that while honeypots were recognised by CERTs as providing crucial insight into hacker behaviour, their usage to detect and investigate attacks was still not as widespread as might be expected. This implied barriers to their deployment. This new study presents practical deployment strategies and critical issues for CERTs. In total, 30 honeypots of different categories were tested and evaluated. Goal: to offer insight into which open source solutions and honeypot technology are best for deployment and usage. Since there is no silver bullet solution, this new study has identified some shortcomings and deployment barriers for honeypots: the difficulty of usage, poor documentation, lack of software stability and developer support, little standardisation, and a requirement for highly skilled people, as well as problems in understanding basic honeypot concepts. The study also presents a classification and explores the future of honeypots. The Executive Director of ENISA Professor Udo Helmbrecht commented: “Honeypots offer a powerful tool for CERTs to gather threat intelligence without any impact on the production infrastructure. Correctly deployed, honeypots offer considerable benefits for CERTs; malicious activity in a CERT’s constituency can be tracked to provide early warning of malware infections, new exploits, vulnerabilities and malware behaviour, as well as give an opportunity to learn about attacker tactics. Therefore, if the CERTs in Europe recognise honeypots better as a tasty option, they could better defend their constituencies’ assets.“   For full report For background: COM(2009)149 and  NATO’s Legal Implications of Countering Botnets   For interviews, please contact: Ulf Bergstrom, Spokesman, press@enisa.europa.eu or mobile: +30 6948 460 143, or Cosmin Ciobanu, ENISA Expert, at opsec@enisa.europa.eu Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

New report by EU Agency ENISA, focussing on technical aspects of “the right to be forgotten”

“The right to be forgotten” is one of the elements of the new proposed regulation (January 2012) on data protection of the European Commission. The right allows people to ask for digitally held personal information to be deleted.

The regulation is still to be adopted by the European Parliament. Therefore the EU’s ‘cyber security’ Agency ENISA is launching its new report covering the technical aspects of “being forgotten”, as technology and information systems play a critical role in enforcing this right. The report identifies technical limitations and a further need for clear definitions and legal clarifications before appropriate technical means to enforce this right can be properly implemented. Some key recommendations of the paper are: Policymakers and data protection bodies should work together to clarify definitions to assist the enforcement of the right (clarification of who can ask for the deletion of shared personal data, under what circumstances, etc.). Furthermore, with such definitions, the associated costs need to be considered. A purely technical solution to enforcing this right in the open Internet is impossible. An interdisciplinary approach is needed and policymakers should be aware of this fact. A possible, pragmatic approach to assist in implementing this right is to require search engine operators and sharing services within the EU to filter references to “forgotten” information stored inside and outside the EU region. Particular care must be taken concerning the deletion of personal data stored on discarded and offline storage devices. The report complements two other recent ENISA publications: the study on data storage and collection in Europe and the paper on the privacy implications of online behavioural tracking. In this broader context, policymakers should ensure the use of technologies supporting the principle of minimal disclosure in order to minimise the amount of personal data collected and stored online. The Agency also recommends the use of encryption for the storage and transfer of personal data. Particular attention should be given to tracking and profiling online, and enforcement solutions should be deployed to block inappropriate behaviour and to force compliance with regulations regarding personal data protection. The Executive Director of ENISA Professor Udo Helmbrecht commented: “A uniform approach is needed in Europe to secure the fundamental right of personal data protection. The reform of the data protection laws in Europe is a decisive step in this direction. ENISA’s reports provide a technical information security perspective supporting this reform.” For full report and all recommendations. For background: European Commission, COM(2012) 11 final, 25 January 2012.  For interviews please contact: Ulf Bergstrom, Spokesman, press@enisa.europa.eu or mobile: +30 6948 460 143, or Rodica Tirtea, ENISA Expert, at sta@enisa.europa.eu Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

New report on Supply Chain Integrity launched

Supply chain integrity (SCI) in the ICT industry is a topic that is receiving attention from both the public and private sectors (i.e. vendors, infrastructure owners, operators, etc.) as part of a wider review of supply chain control, and the increased demands for security is vital both for the economy and society.

Understanding supply chains is a critical factor in business success and thus to the economy of nation states. Integrity is the element of managing the supply chain that this report focusses on, with a view to providing guidance to EU member states. This paper identifies what the Supply Chain and Integrity means in the ICT context. Safe products, systems and components -from the start till end? Supply chains have become increasingly global in recent years and have become longer both geographically and in the number of supply elements. This is consistent with the globalisation of markets, and the move away from a major industry and its suppliers being geographically locally limited to each other. Telecommunications operators and equipment manufacturers increasingly rely on globally sourced components. For niche markets, a single supplier may support the entire industry (e.g. Microsoft supplying Operating Systems to 83% of the PC market) with distribution channels serving the dependent markets. A characteristic of the ICT market is the ability to distribute software, firmware and chip designs in “soft formats”; this gives a different perspective to ICT supply chain analysis in relation to other forms of raw material, logistic distribution networks, and staff. Structure of supply chains A supply chain is not really a chain with each link joining two  suppliers together in a single path from the start till the end of the chain. A loss of a single link would then be visible and the impact instant – the chain breaks.  In practice, supply chains are more like the fishbone structure. ICT supply chain integrity is consequently relevant for both hardware (PC:s USB, etc) and software products, as well as and services (system of apparatus, appliances, employees, etc). Product oriented supply chains can consist of software and hardware design, testing, production, delivery, repair, support, and maintenance, as well as organizations, people, and processes, engaged in its operations. Supply chains related to telecommunications services include network design, testing, installation, network management. The increased demand for security-supply chain integrity. This report originates on the assertion that Governments, corporations, organizations, and consumers are increasingly reliant on ICT products and services to protect the society and economy. As a result of this, reliance and security threats to ICT supply chains have attracted more attention, including the threat of intentional tampering during development, distribution or operations, or the threat of substitution with counterfeit (including cloned or overproduced) components before or during delivery, and attacks against the economy through the supply chain. Recommendations The present report identifies the nature of these threats and examines the strategies used to counter them. The report finally recommends that supply chain actors follow a core set of good practices to provide a common basis to assess and manage ICT supply chain risk –Moreover, the report recognise that governments must work in collaboration with private industry to build international assessment frameworks. For full report Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Is e-data the new currency? New ENISA report looks at privacy and tracking

Internet users are increasingly tracked and profiled, with personal data being treated as currency in exchange for services. A gap exists between the legal requirements for personal data protection and the practice in the online environment.

The new Regulation proposal by the European Commission (COM2012/11/final), aims to address these challenges from a legal perspective. This ENISA study provides a technical aspect on behavioural tracking, identifying the need for an interdisciplinary approach to address the privacy risks associated with tracking mechanisms. Risks from tracking include global surveillance by governments and companies; service and price discrimination; and personalisation risks from data filtering. Protective measures are focused at a technological, legislative and educational level. ENISA’s recommendations are addressed to regulators, policy stakeholders, researchers and developers. These proposals include: anti-tracking initiatives and solutions for mobile applications; development of easy-to-use tools for transparency and control; enforcement of compliance with rules and regulations on personal data protection monitoring and detecting violations; and promoting privacy-by-design to ensure meaningful privacy policies. For the full report Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

MEP Jutta Haug visits ENISA

MEP Jutta Haug has visited ENISA’s seat in Heraklion, Greece to learn more about the Agency’s work and future plans.

Mrs Haug has been an MEP since 1994 and a Member of the Germany's Social and Democratic Party (SPD) Executive since 1999. During her visit, Mrs Haug, an MEP for the Socialists & Democrats Group in the European Parliament, met the Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht, and members of the Management Team. Topics discussed included the ENISA 2013 draft Work Programme, the new ENISA Regulation proposal and future resourcing. Mrs Haug is a Vice Chair of the European Parliament's Budget Committee, and also saw presentations on ENISA's budget evolution, financial performance and latest European Court of Auditors report. Commenting on her visit, Mrs Haug said: “ENISA is achieving impressive results and delivering excellent value for money. This is particularly apparent in the Agency’s top-class performance in organising the Cyber Europe 2012 security exercise earlier this month.  ENISA achieved outcomes  that are far above what might be expected from a relatively small agency, covering a very wide scope of work.  To achieve these consistently high standards, ENISA is currently working at the edge of its capabilities, and with more staff and resources, would be in position to consolidate this high performance and achieve even more.”      Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

New ENISA Inventory of CERT (Computer Emergency Response Teams) “digital fire brigades” plus interactive map

ENISA has published a new interactive CERTs map and Inventory of CERT’s activities in Europe containing publicly listed teams and co-operation, support and standardisation activities.

The Inventory’s new improved tabulated format shows Europe’s “digital fire brigades” by sector for each country, while the new CERTs map provides filtering capabilities for all CERT teams in the wider EU geographical region. This now includes 195 CERT teams, 22 more than when the inventory was last updated in spring 2012. An extra feature of the map is the inclusion of the General CERT Report and the National Governmental CERT Report, which provide information on the countries’ CERT teams with the push of a button. The Inventory and map are available online at https://www.enisa.europa.eu/activities/cert/background/inv and its subpages. More on ENISA’s work with CERTs These latest publications follow ENISA’s 7th CERTs annual workshop held earlier this year in Malta and The Hague. The most recent session held jointly with Europol focused on CERTs and their national Law Enforcement counterparts. Overall themes included botnets mitigation, mobile malware, capacity building and incidents response in facilitating collaboration between CERTS and Law Enforcement Agencies. By the end of 2012 ENISA will launch reports on the current capabilities of national/governmental CERTs in Europe. Furthermore, ENISA supports Member States in setting up CERTs with training, workshops, and information updates, as well as the recently formalised EU-CERT for the EU institutions.  The Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht observed: “The Agency’s work for the ‘digital fire-brigades’ is a success story, creating a European CERTs community of trust reflected in this inventory and map. CERTs provide the operational backbone for protecting our ICT systems in case of cyber-attacks. I am particularly pleased with our smooth co-operation with Europol, where ENISA’s expertise and prevention work supports their operational work in fighting cyber-crime.”   Background: The CERT map and Inventory documents are updated twice a year. The next update is anticipated by the end of 2012. For the latest up-to-date-version, please subscribe to our RSS feeds. CERTs have been established by EU Member State governments and other public and private sector bodies to enable a quick response to emergencies that could affect vital computer networks or information systems.   Updated CERTs map Updated Inventory of CERTs For interviews: Graeme Cooper, Head of Public Affairs, Mobile: + 30 6951 782 268, press@enisa.europa.eu, or cert-relations@enisa.europa.eu   Follow the EU cyber security affairs of ENISA on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn YouTube and RSS feeds     Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

The Anatomy of National and International Cyber Security Exercises; new report by the EU cyber-security Agency ENISA

In its new report, the EU’s ’cyber-security agency’ ENISA (the European Network and Information Security Agency) examines 85 national and international cyber-exercises between 2002 and 2012. The report issues seven recommendations.

Information on national and multinational cyber-exercises was gathered worldwide and analysed in this report. We found that a total of 22 European countries were conducting national cyber-security exercises during the last years.  The key findings include: Cyber-exercises have increased in numbers recent years; 71% occurred 2010-2012. The reasons are the overall policy context that boosts cyber-exercises, an increased emphasis by EU Member States thereupon, and the increasing threat of cross border cyber incidents and attacks. Cyber-security and cyber crisis cooperation efforts are receiving ever more attention. There is an essential need to intensify public–private cooperation on cyber-exercises, as the ownership of most of the critical information infrastructures lies in private hands. Proper planning, monitoring and evaluation methods are crucial for effective cyber-exercises.   Some statistical features show that: 64% of the multinational exercises involved more than 10 countries, 13% involved 6–10 countries and 13% involved 3–5 countries. In 57% of the exercises both the public and private sector participated, while 41% involved only the public sector. Two-thirds of the analysed exercises were national exercises and one-third was multinational exercises. This indicates a tendency for international cooperation, although national security matters usually are domestic concerns. Exercises also generated media footprint for 74% of them, creating national cyber-security awareness.                                                                         The seven key recommendations of the report are: Establish a more integrated global cyber exercise community; Ensure exchange of good practices on cyber-exercises, including public–private cooperation; Support development of exercise management tools for better exercise planning, execution and evaluation; Conduct more complex cyber-exercises at inter-sectorial, international and European levels; Exercises should be included in the lifecycle of national cyber crisis contingency plans; Promote the good practices for national exercises, and initiate a step-by-step methodology for  cross-border cyber-exercises; Develop feedback mechanisms for ensuring that lessons learned from cyber-exercises   The Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht, remarked: “The ENISA study shows that a broad consensus exists for cyber-exercises being an essential instrument to assess the preparedness of a community against cyber crises, and to enhance the responsiveness of stakeholders against critical information infrastructure incidents. Based on the report results we will see a growing number of multinational exercises, like our recent Cyber Europe 2012, involving also the private sector.” Please refer to the full report. For background: Critical Information Infrastructure Protection (CIIP) Action Plan, Digital Agenda and the 2011 Communication on CIIP. Follow the EU cyber-security affairs of ENISA on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn YouTube & RSS feeds For interviews please contact: Ulf Bergstrom, Spokesman, press@enisa.europa.eu or mobile: +30 6948 460 143, or Panagiotis Trimintzios, Exercise Director, panagiotis.trimintzios@enisa.europa.eu Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA discussing 'Paradigm-Shift in IT' at the ISSE Conference 2012

This year’s ISSE conference has started today (23 October) in Brussels and ENISA is participating actively in several sessions, focussing on its recent studies and report results in the areas of Security Management, Cloud Computing security and Internet Security Strategy.

During the first panel session: "Houston we have a problem!": Paradigm-Shift in IT, The ENISA Executive Director, Professor Udo Helmbrecht underlined: The ENISA Flash note on “High Roller”  stating that new sophisticated targeted attacks don’t allow us to trust on the security of our computers. Key recommendations included:      - Banks should always assume customers’ computers are infected, and take protection        measures.      - Implement trusted channels: SMS, phone call, standalone smartcard reader with screen, etc.      - Strong cooperation is needed to take down global command centres.      - Test operational policies by practicing, like in the Cyber Europe 2012 exercise   The ENISA report on the Cyber Incident Reporting in the EU . The paper identifies the mandatory incident reporting clauses in Article 13a of the Telecom package and Article 4 of the e-privacy directive, the proposed e-ID regulation’s Article 15, and Articles 30, 31, 32 of the Data Protection reform.   The latest ENISA study on Smart Grids 10 recommendations for making European smart grids safer proposes 10 security recommendations for the public and private sector. The most relevant, out of almost 100 findings, being:      - MS:s need to provide a clear, regulatory and policy framework on smart grid cyber security at the national and EU level      - Develop a minimum set of security measures      - Promote security certification schemes for the entire value chain ENISA is also participating in the second day of the event (24 October). For more information http://www.isse.eu.com/ Follow updates on Twitter : https://twitter.com/ISSEconference ,  #ISSE2012 Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Midpoint report on the first European Cyber Security Month: A Successful Start

Halfway through the first European Cyber Security Month (ECSM), the pilot campaign has already reached 1,986,270 people on Facebook Europe-wide. In addition, a special Security Month awareness event has taken place every two days in one of the participating countries.

Going into the second half of the first ECSM, thousands of viewers have seen the ECSM video produced by ENISA, which takes a light-hearted, fun approach to cyber security. The video portrays how citizens willingly share private information online, and reminds you in a witty way to pay attention to what you make public, e.g. stating online being away is an invitation for burglars. The ECSM runs throughout October, being organised by eight EU and EEA countries (the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Norway, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom). It is supported by ENISA and the European Commission. Key activities, so far, include: In Portugal: 300 professionals from more than 75 enterprises and organisations attended their events. In Norway: 13 events and social media campaigns are planned. In Spain: León, 122 students attended lectures on Internet security and social networks, with a focus on teenagers, parents and teachers. This included tales and a drawing competition called "What do you know about security?" for children 5-12 years old. In Luxembourg: An IT security stand at the nine-day-long annual Autumn Fair attracted more than 1,000 visitors in the first weekend alone, emptying the stand of campaign material and made the front page of Wort, the biggest daily! In Slovenia: Two Slovenian stand-up comedians are starring in three educational videos. The national campaign started on October 17, with TV ads being broadcast (reaching more than 70% of the population) and a Facebook campaign being launched. The following events are starting now for the second half of the ECSM: United Kingdom: A road-show visiting five major cities (Cardiff, London, Leeds, Edinburgh and Belfast) will start on October 22 during the Get Safe Online week. The theme is ‘Click & Tell’, with online safety tips for friends, family, colleagues and neighbours. Czech Republic: A roundtable discussion on online child protection with NGOs, Czech internet hotlines, CSIRT teams and industry stakeholders. Online and media campaigns will also be held. Romania: The ‘Cyber Threats 2012’ conference and social media campaigns with security advice will take place.   Background: ECSM Material The European Commission’s Digital Agenda for Europe, action point 32 For interviews: Ulf Bergström, Spokesman, mobile phone: +30 6948 460 43, press@enisa.europa.eu, or Isabella Santa, Expert, awareness@enisa.europa.eu Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn YouTube and RSS feeds Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Article 13a Working Group meeting- regarding reporting of cyber security incidents

ENISA just concluded the 8th Article 13a Working group meeting with the national regulatory authorities, regarding the implementation of EU-wide security legislation for electronic communication providers.

The meeting was hosted by the German regulator Bundesnetzagentur, and held in Mainz, Germany. Present at the two-day meeting were regulators from nearly all EU Member States (30 experts), a representative of the European Commission, and technical experts from ENISA. The main agenda items were: An update on the developments of the European Cyber Security Strategy The first Annual Cyber Security Incidents report, issued recently Four large outages that occurred recently in the EU member states, and possible security measures to prevent outages (national roaming, resiliency of IT equipment, dependencies on power supply, et cetera) Live demonstrations of four tools used for reporting incidents to authorities (Sweden, Austria, US FCC, ENISA).   The next meeting of the Article 13a WG is scheduled for February 2013. The next round of incident reporting will take place in the first two months of 2013. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Workplace IT: ENISA sees opportunities and risks in “Bring Your Own Device” trend

The developing trend of people using their own computers, phones, social networks or smart devices and applications for work offers benefits, but also brings risks. That’s the message from the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) in its latest report, Consumerisation of IT: Top Risks and Opportunities.

In today’s high-pressure work environment, mobility and networked knowledge are two key factors shaping the future of professional life. These factors, combined with the consumerisation of all kinds of IT components, make it imperative to consider the role of private IT in corporate IT strategies. The “Bring Your Own Device” option, where staff use their personal computers to perform tasks in the workplace or elsewhere, can bring a wide range of potential benefits. Among the opportunities presented by this consumerisation of IT are: employer and staff flexibility on hours and work locations savings through lower infrastructure costs increased productivity and staff satisfaction through developing their own skills  lower infrastructure costs from moving to flexible IT solutions, such as cloud computing But with the potential benefits come risks, which must be foreseen, with proper policies and mitigation strategies. Among the top risks are: confidential information being lost, stolen or made public, whether through poor IT security on personal devices, or through the theft of mobile devices or computers potential issues over data ownership, unauthorized sharing, and legal governance over devices, programs and content increased opportunities for cyber-criminals to target corporate data   Overall, ENISA identifies three main areas of risk, relating to: cost, legal and regulatory issues, and data confidentiality/integrity/availability. Potential benefits fall into the areas of finance, human resources, operational opportunities and data management. Commenting on the report, ENISA’s Executive Director, Professor Udo Helmbrecht, said: “In today’s workplace, mobility and consumerisation of IT is often a great opportunity for staff and employers to reap the benefits offered by modern IT:  increased flexibly and potential reduction of costs. Some of the security risks involved are relatively classic, such as failing to ensure that devices and applications are secure, and sharing information inappropriately. Others, such as legal questions, are more complex, but if properly addressed, will allow for more effective working regimes and tools.” The full report is available here. For interviews: Ulf Bergström, Spokesman, ENISA, Mobile: +30 6948 460 143, or Louis Marinos, opsec@enisa.europa.eu Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Focus on the fight against cybercrime -7th annual CERT Part II workshop

The focus of the 7th annual workshop is on cooperation between national/governmental Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERT)s in Europe, and their national Law Enforcement counterparts. The workshop agenda is in particular looking at Botnets mitigation, capacity building and incidents response, under the theme of “CERT-LEA collaboration in the fight against cybercrime”. This event was yet again co-organised with Europol and held at their premises in The Hague, The Netherlands on 16-17 October 2012. The workshop was a planned follow-up-event to the successful 6th Annual CERT workshop held last year. For full agenda. For more information: Europol news Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA supports Digital Resilience at Amsterdam Grand Conference

ENISA Executive Director, Professor Udo Helmbrecht is among delegates joining European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes at the Building a Resilient Digital Society conference, in Amsterdam today [16th October].

Commissioner Kroes will give a keynote address dealing with cyber security in Europe. As part of the closing ceremony, leading CEOs, including Professor Helmbrecht, will sign the World Economic Forum Principles on Cyber Resilience to show leadership and responsibility in these area. Professor Helmbrecht, said: “Europe’s citizens can all benefit immensely from a truly digital society, where everyone has access to the opportunities offered by information technology, in areas including work, education and leisure.  ENISA helps to keep cyberspace secure for all of these uses, and events such as this conference are a great opportunity to share good practices on building a resilient digital society we can all share in.”      More info: https://www.thegrandconference.org/ Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Successful conclusion for the First Annual Privacy Forum

The First Annual Privacy Forum - a two day Forum of excellent discussions, innovative research presentations and policy debates - concluded with great success yesterday.

Held in  Limassol, Cyprus,  the  event was co-organised by the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) and the European Commission Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT), with the support of the Department of Computer Science of the University of Cyprus. APF’12 was endorsed as an official event of the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The  1st Annual Privacy Forum’s objective was to create a space for dialogue between representatives of industry, researchers and policymakers. The Forum’s inaugural year  has proved a great success, with  approximately 70 delegates  participating. Steve Purser, Head of ENISA’s Technical Competence Department, points out the Agency’s role: ‘’As far as privacy in the EU is concerned, we are moving from the policy and legislative phase to the implementation phase and this is where ENISA can make a real difference.’’ DG CONNECT, through the presence of Trust and Security Policy Coordinator, Rosa Barcelo emphasizes that, ‘’We need a regulatory environment that protects individuals’ privacy in a changing technological environment, while at the same time stimulating growth and innovation." Co-Chair of APF’2012 Prof. Marios Dikaiakos, University of Cyprus, expressed his satisfaction with the productive discussions that have taken place: ‘’Data Privacy is one of the key socio-technical and policy challenges in the Information Society, with important ramifications for the development of the Internet economy. The University of Cyprus was delighted to contribute to the organization of this successful event that brought to Cyprus world experts in data privacy, in collaboration with ENISA, DG CONNECT and under the auspices of the Cyprus Presidency of the European Council.’’ With privacy becoming an ever more debated issue, both the timing and themes of the event were well chosen. This was illustrated by the highly focused discussions that followed each session, as well as the support offered to the conference by leading organisations in ICT, such as the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the Cyprus Telecommunication Authority (CYTA). Background: Privacy is a fundamental need and a basic right. The European Commission proposed in January 2012 a reform of the EU's data protection rules to strengthen online privacy rights. ENISA’s work can be consulted here http://www.enisa.europa.eu/activities/identity-and-trust Follow the Privacy Forum on twitter @PrivacyForum_EU   &  www.privacyforum.eu Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA Accounting Officer appointment

At the 22nd meeting of the ENISA Management Board on 9th October, 2012, the Board took the decision to appoint Mr Michail Christidis as ENISA’s Accounting Officer. The full decision can be found at: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/about-enisa/structure-organization/management-board/minutes-decisions-1/mb-decision-09-10-2012 Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

First annual report of cyber incidents in the EU: 51 severe outages reported over 2011

This year, for the first time in the EU, all Member States have reported on past cyber security incidents to the EU’s ‘cyber security’ agency ENISA and the European Commission. Eleven EU countries reported 51 severe outages of electronic communication networks or services. Today, ENISA publishes the first ever annual report on this, containing an analysis of incidents in 2011.

Under Article 13a of the EU’s telecom reform directive (Directive 2009/140/EC), EU Member States are required to make summary reports on major outages once a year to ENISA and the European Commission. The first summary incident reports for 2011 were sent to ENISA in May 2012. In total, 11 countries reported outages. This number reflects the fact that many countries implemented national reporting schemes only towards the end of 2011. ENISA Experts Marnix Dekker and Christoffer Karsberg remark: “This year, the Member States have more mature national incident reporting schemes. So next year we expect to publish an annual report with about 10 times more incidents.” In the annual report, ENISA summarizes and analyses the 51 reported incidents: Most of the reported incidents affected mobile telephony or mobile internet (60%). Incidents affecting mobile telephony or mobile internet affected most users (around 300.000 users), which is consistent with the high number of mobile users. Incidents show that communication services (both fixed and mobile) strongly depend on the power supply. Natural phenomena like storms, floods and heavy snow have a big impact on the power supply of providers. Natural phenomena cause long lasting incidents, around 45 hours on average. The annual report also provides a summary of Article 13a and how it was implemented by ENISA and the EU Member States. The incidents will be discussed in more detail in the Article 13a working  group which consists of all electronic communication regulators from EU countries, and technical experts from ENISA. In 2013, ENISA and the EC will collect the incident reports concerning outages that occurred in 2012. The next annual report will be published in the spring of 2013. The Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht comments: “We are now, for the first time, equipped with an overview of major cyber incidents in Europe. This is a decisive moment for the EU’s efforts to improve understanding of the impact of cyber security incidents. But this still deals with only a small subset of cyber security incidents. This type of reporting should be extended to cover a wider range of incidents and more sectors.” For the full report with all data and analysis: Annual Incidents Report 2011 For interviews: Graeme Cooper, Head of Public Affairs, ENISA, Mobile: +30 6951 782 268 or Dr Marnix Dekker, resilience@enisa.europa.eu. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Successful completion for Portugal’s European Cyber Security Month (ECSM)

First reports from Portugal's European Cyber Security events show that the initiative is a success.

Almost 300 people attended the events, representing more than 75 enterprises and organisations. The second edition of InfoSec Day under the auspices of the ECSM, was hosted and organised by the “National Security Office” in collaboration with ShadowSEC. José Torres Sobral, Director General of the “Gabinete Nacional de Segurança” of Portugal and ENISA Management Board member, said: “I am delighted that Portugal took part in the first ever European Cyber Security Month. A very valuable joint effort that addressed real problems in theory and in practice. All events were a great opportunity to share experiences and thoughts with other leading organisations, both helpful and enjoyable. ”   The Agency plans to produce its ECSM's report by the end of the year.   More info: Portugal Security Week, European Cyber Security Month   Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Cyber Europe 2012 – first results show success

ENISA’s initial findings from Europe’s biggest ever cyber security test show that the exercise was a success.

Cyber Europe 2012 was a day-long simulated cyber attack on Europe’s critical information infrastructures. It was used to analyse how participating countries’ and private sector organisations would cooperate in the event of a real large-scale attack. ENISA’s headline observations from the “hot wash” exercise review session held today (05/10/2012) are: There was frequent cooperation and information exchange between public and private sector organisations Public-Private cooperation structure differed per country Some countries responded by upscaling their national crisis cells/crisis plans/crisis structures Some countries suffered from real incidents besides the CE2012 exercise Familiarity with procedures is crucial for building a fast and effective response capability across Europe There is a need for close understanding between players and a need to be able to communicate quickly with key contacts in national authorities and the private sector The inclusion of private sector organisations as players was an excellent addition. Their input and experience helped build realistic scenarios and make exercise highly effective on the day. (Most Critical Information Infrastructure is owned by the private sector.)  Overall, there were approx. 60 banks and 60 ISPs taking part in the various countries.  Simulations were highly realistic. Players were under pressure so as to assess how this would affect cooperation   Conclusions from the exercise will be considered by the European Commission and Member States in drafting Europe’s Cyber Security Strategy ENISA plans to produce its Cyber Europe 2012 exercise report by the end of the year Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Europe joins forces in Cyber Europe 2012

Today, more than 300 cyber security professionals across Europe join forces to counter a massive simulated cyber-attack in the 2nd pan-European Cyber Exercise, Cyber Europe 2012.

The exercise builds on and ties together extensive activities at both the national and European level to improve the resilience of critical information infrastructures. As such, Cyber Europe 2012 is a major milestone in the efforts to strengthen cyber crisis cooperation, preparedness and response across Europe. Cyber Europe 2012 is a distributed table-top exercise organised by the Member States of the European Union and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries. It is facilitated by the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) and supported by the European Commission's in-house science service, the Joint Research Centre (JRC). Compared to the 2010 exercise, Cyber Europe 2012 has grown considerably in scope, scale and complexity. Cyber Europe 2012 has three objectives:  Test effectiveness and scalability of existing mechanisms, procedures and information flow for public authorities’ cooperation in Europe; Explore the cooperation between public and private stakeholders in Europe; Identify gaps and challenges on how large scale cyber incidents could be handled more effectively in Europe. Four countries are observing the exercise and 25 countries are actively participating. Using the lessons learned from Cyber Europe 2010, the private sector (from finance, ISPs and eGovernment) is taking part for the first time. In the exercise, public and private participants across Europe will take action at the national level. At the same time, public participants will cooperate across borders. The scenario for Cyber Europe 2012 combines several technically realistic threats into one simultaneously escalating Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on online services in all participating countries. This kind of scenario would disrupt services for millions of citizens across Europe. The complexity of the scenario allows for the creation of enough cyber incidents to challenge the several hundred public and private sector participants from throughout Europe, while at the same time triggering cooperation. By the end of the exercise, the participants will have had to handle more than 1000 injects (simulated cyber incidents). The Executive Director of ENISA, Prof. Udo Helmbrecht, comments: “ENISA aims to support the cyber crisis community in improving the resilience of critical information infrastructures. That is why we facilitated the organisation of Cyber Europe 2012.” Background The European Commission’s communication from 2009 on CIIP paved the way for the first pan-European Cyber Exercise. In the Digital Agenda,[1] ENISA was given the role of supporting EU and EFTA Member States in organising and running national exercises.[2] In 2009, ENISA published a ‘Good Practice Guide on National Exercises’ and the Agency has since then held many workshops across Europe to assist in the planning of national exercises. The Agency will soon publish a guide to national contingency planning. Note The exercise does not affect real critical information infrastructures, systems or services. Media briefing pack is available here: https://www.enisa.europa.eu/activities/Resilience-and-CIIP/cyber-crisis-cooperation/cyber-europe/cyber-europe-2012/cyber-europe-2012-i Cyber Europe 2012 video is available here: https://www.enisa.europa.eu/activities/Resilience-and-CIIP/cyber-crisis-cooperation/cyber-europe/cyber-europe-2012/cyber-europe-2012-video For interviews: Graeme Cooper, Head of Public Affairs, ENISA, Mobile: +30 6951 782 268, Graeme.Cooper@enisa.europa.eu ____________________________________________________________ [1] http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digital-agenda/index_en.htm [2] See IP/10/581, MEMO/10/199 and MEMO/10/200 Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

The first European Cyber Security Month starts today across Europe; “Be Aware, Be Secure”

For the first time, a European Cyber Security Month takes places as a pilot project across Europe.

In this first pilot, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Norway, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom are participating with various activities and events throughout October, to raise awareness of cyber security. The objectives of the European Cyber Security Month (ECSM) are to promote cyber security awareness among citizens, to modify their perception of cyber threats, and to provide updated security information through education, good practices and competitions. A diverse range of activities will be held throughout Europe. They include: TV and daily radio advertisements; social media campaigns and quizzes with prizes; news articles; conferences; student fairs; and an NGO round table to discuss protection of children online. The Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht comments: “This first European Cyber Security Month is a Europe-wide campaign to become smarter online. Having one, single month focusing on cyber security makes it easier to get the message across. This campaign increases citizen’s confidence in the security of the Internet, helping to reduce the number of cyber incidents and breaches. In the end, this is vital for the success of the digital economy in Europe.” Vice President and Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes comments; "We all have a stake in keeping the Internet safe. Whether you are a parent, a business owner, or just someone who loves their smartphone – the same principles apply. Be aware, use common sense. I am pleased that so many are supporting European Cyber Security Month – a great way to present these issues to the general public in a fun and engaging way.” ECSM Material ENISA has developed a range of free material (e.g. a video clip, an animated logo, a logo in 23 languages) to support the countries participating  in ECSM. This material is an important way of  reaching people and getting them to change, or reinforce, their behaviour. The material also includes: tips and advice on how to stay safe in a variety of online settings, such as on social networking site, gaming sites, and on  mobile devices. For more material. Background: The European Commission’s Digital Agenda for Europe, action point 32 The EU –US Working Group on Cyber security and Cybercrime (See EU press release) The ENISA 2011 ECSM feasibility study evaluated 130 cyber security events in Europe and identified their success factors. For interviews: Graeme Cooper, Head of Public Affairs, Mobile phone: +306951782268, press@enisa.europa.eu, or, Isabella Santa, Expert, awareness@enisa.europa.eu Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn YouTube and RSS feeds. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA stays on Crete - confirmed

ENISA’s Executive Director, Professor Udo Helmbrecht was today (27th Sept. 2012) able to confirm that the Agency’s seat will remain on Crete.

The confirmation comes after discussions between the Greek Government Minister, Konstantinos Chatzidakis and European Commission Vice President, Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Further details were agreed in letters exchanged between Professor Helmbrecht and Minister, Mr Stavros Kalogiannis. Under the agreements, ENISA’s Executive Director, research and analysis functions, and administrative and horizontal tasks  will be based in Heraklion. Operational staff members who work closely with EU Member States’ governments will be based in ENISA’s Athens office. Greece’s government fully supports this, and is assisting ENISA in finding adequate premises in Athens. Professor Helmbrecht said: “I am delighted that we have had this excellent news, which confirms what we have always said, ENISA’s seat will remain in Heraklion. The confirmation of the Heraklion seat and the Athens office allows work on the new ENISA Regulation to move forward, and removes uncertainty for our staff. “We have excellent support from Greece’s government, particularly from Ministers Chatzidakis and  Kalogiannis, and on Crete, the Governor, Mr Stavros Arnaoutakis, has provided invaluable assistance. Both myself, and all of the ENISA team are looking forward to continuing these good relationships with a confirmed future for ENISA.”   The overall European Regulation, under which ENISA operates, is in the process of being renewed by the European Parliament and Council. The confirmation of ENISA’s seat in Heraklion is a major step forward in this process.   Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA’s Executive Director Professor Udo Helmbrecht has been appointed Chairman of AISEC

In a unanimous vote, the Board of Trustees of Germany’s Fraunhofer Research Institution for Applied and Integrated Security (AISEC) has appointed Executive Director of ENISA Professor Udo Helmbrecht as their Chairman for a three year term.

Professor Helmbrecht commented: “It is with great honour that I accept the Chair of the Board of Trustees at AISEC. It is my goal to achieve visibility and implementation for AISEC’s work while promoting research and development and forming strategic partnerships. I look forward to this new role which I am positive will be exciting and highly effective.” Background Information:   Professor Udo Helmbrecht  has been the Executive Director of ENISA since October 2009. Prior to this, he was the President of the German Federal Office for Information Security, BSI, for six years from 2003-2009. At the end of 2010, he received the title of Honorary Professor at the Bundeswehr University in Munich.   Fraunhofer AISEC, mainly focuses on applied research for the development of application-oriented security solutions and their custom integration in existing systems. Fields of expertise include: Embedded Security, Cloud & Service Computing, Network Security, Security Evaluation, Smart Card & RFID, Automotive Security, Product Protection, IT Early-Warning and Smart Grid Security. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA roundtable event in the European Parliament, Brussels

ENISA is at ‘crossroads of its history’, with the new regulation proposal pending, establishing the budget, and future work for the Agency.

Therefore, today, Tuesday 25, September 2012, the Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht made a presentation at a 'roundtable' meeting hosted at the European Parliament. The presentation outlined ENISA’s mission, and current hot topics in cyber security. Professor Helmbrecht was supported by Dr Marnix Dekker who spoke on secure software engineering, economics of security breach notifications, and ENISA's work in assisting the ‘digital fire brigades’ i.e. the Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs). The meeting was held at the invitation of MEP Giles Chichester (European Parliament ITRE Committee Rapporteur on ENISA), and MEP Ameila Andersdotter (ITRE Committee Member) and was followed by a discussion. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

EU-US workshop agenda - now online

The first joint EU-US Open Workshop on Cyber Security for Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and Smart Grids will be held on October 15th, 2012 in Amsterdam, supported by ENISA.

The workshop will gather key European and American companies and public authorities to exchange information on policies and best practices. The aim is to strengthen cyber security and explore areas for further cooperation. A main focus will be promoting benefits from transatlantic collaboration. The detailed agenda is available here. Background information: The EU-US Working Group on Cyber Security and Cyber Crime (EU-US WG) was established in the context of the EU-US Summit of 20 November 2010 in Lisbon to “tackle new threats to the global networks upon which the security and prosperity of our free societies increasingly depend”. ICS and smart grids are two of these priority areas identified. ENISA and EU Member States are supporting the European Commission and the US Department of Homeland Security in developing a Strategy and Action Plan on ICS and Smart Grids. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA launches upgraded, revamped website with new social media channels

The EU’s ‘cyber security’ Agency, ENISA (the European Network and Information Security Agency), is launching its new upgraded website, including new social media channels, on Wednesday, 19 September 2012.

These channels were developed in-house for more coherent corporate communications, include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube accounts, and will be an integral element of the Agency’s online communications. In addition, the Agency’s website has been redesigned to further improve ease of navigation, usability and end-user experience. The new site has dynamic fast-paced architecture providing access to ENISA’s Work Programme, latest reports and position papers, projects, publications and audiovisual material. The Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht, comments:  “I am looking forward to this new phase in our communications. I am personally an ardent fan of new technologies. With many of us now “always online” through 24/7 access and smartphones and mobile devices, ENISA needs to be more visible in cyber space. Social networks extend the Agency’s reach, to give easier access to our latest security analyses and information for safer working and networking online, especially for children.” ENISA’s social media channels will act as quick and simple platforms for short updates on the Agency’s forthcoming studies and reports, future events, insight and expert analysis on emerging trends and risks. Updates will also include links to vacancies, activities, conferences and procurements. Forthcoming events for ENISA include the Workshop on Cyber Security Strategies, EU Cyber Security Month throughout October and the first Annual Privacy Forum on 10-11 October 2012 in Cyprus. Professor Udo Helmbrecht added: “We look forward to engaging actively with the online community. ‘Follow’ and ‘Like’ us!” For interviews: Ulf Bergstrom, Spokesman, ENISA, press@enisa.europa.eu, Mobile: + 30 6948 460 143, or Graeme Cooper, Head of Public Affairs, ENISA, Mobile: +30 6951 782 268     Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items; http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA seeks input on Network Information Security (NIS) in Education

ENISA is calling on teachers, trainers and educators to get involved in sharing their experiences about NIS in education.

The project continues a successful initiative from 2011 with Member States. ENISA’s broker role is in line with the Digital Agenda goals for achieving better information and education of good security practices among youth. For direct access to the questionnaire and the e-community contact Daria. Catalui at enisa.europa.eu by the 30th September, 2012 adding your profile in a paragraph. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items; http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA has held the first meeting of its new Permanent Stakeholders’ Group on Thursday, 13 September 2012

The Permanent Stakeholders’ Group (PSG) consisting of 30 top IT-security experts, has been appointed following an open Call for Expression of Interest for Membership earlier this year.

A new PSG is appointed every 2 ½ years, and the current group will serve from 2012-2015. The meeting was held at ENISA’s branch office in Athens, giving the new PSG members the opportunity to learn more about the Agency’s work in its effort to empower ‘cyber-security’ in Europe. Executive Director Professor Udo Helmbrecht said: “We have recruited a highly skilled and experienced group of experts. ENISA’s future is extremely exciting and I am pleased to have them on board to assist me in developing the Agency’s Work Programme and giving advice on Network Information Security (NIS)”. The full list of the PSG members can be downloaded from here.     Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items; http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Events' calendar for the European Cyber Security Month

The full list of events for the EU Cyber Security Month is now available online: 2012 ECSM events calendar European Cyber Security Month pilot, taking place throughout October, aims to increase knowledge of Network and Information Security (NIS) issues, modify perceptions of threats, and provide updated security information through education, good practices, competitions and roadshows. Activities incorporate social media campaigns, TV and radio messages and educational packages for small and medium-sized enterprises. Material includes posters, videos and leaflets. Participating countries include the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom (Get Safe Online). The European Cyber Security Month is aligned with the European Commission’s Digital Agenda for Europe, action point 32 : “Strengthen the fight against cybercrime at international level”.     Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items; http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Cyber security strengthened at EU institutions following successful pilot scheme

The European Commission today announced that the EU-Institutions have reinforced their fight against cyber threats by establishing the EU's Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT-EU, on a permanent basis.

This decision follows a successful one-year pilot for the team, which drew positive assessments from clients and peers. ENISA will continue its support to this effort. In the Digital Agenda for Europe adopted in May 2010, the Commission pledged to establish a CERT for the EU institutions, as part of an overall commitment to a reinforced and high-level EU Networking and Information Security Policy in Europe. This has now been achieved. CERTs will also play a major role in a forthcoming Communication on cyber security strategy. Background The resources of CERT-EU are provided by the major EU-institutions and agencies, including the European Commission, the Council, the European Parliament, the Committee of the Regions and Economic and Social Committee, and the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA). The team operates under the strategic oversight of an inter-institutional Steering Board. CERT-EU works very closely with the internal IT security teams of the EU institutions and liaises with the community of CERTs and IT security companies in the Member States and elsewhere, exchanging information on threats and how to handle them.  A Digital Agenda for Europe: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digital-agenda/index_en.htm CERT-EU: http://cert.europa.eu/ For the full press release. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items; http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

European Cyber Security Month in all 23 languages

In its build up to the European Cyber Security Month (ECSM), ENISA is now providing the ECSM logo in all 23 official EU languages. The translated logo will improve visibility and recognition of this campaign across all Europe, and support the work of organisations involved in cyber security in all Member States to reach out to their citizens. The objective of European Cyber Security Month is to increase knowledge of Network and Information Security (NIS) issues and  modify perceptions of threats. The campaign provides up to date security information and educational material, shares good NIS practices and gives opportunities to take part in competitions. Background: The first, pilot European Security Month will take place in October 2012, promoting cyber security to citizens. To date, six European countries – Luxemburg, Portugal, Spain, UK (Get Safe Online), Slovenia and Norway – have confirmed their participation. The ECSM includes a diverse range of activities; TV and radio advertisements, social media campaigns, the distribution of educational packages and special events that will be organised in each participating Member State. The European Commission’s Digital Agenda for Europe, action point 32: “Strengthen the fight against cybercrime at international level” specifically identifies a European Cyber Security Month.   For more background on the European Cyber Security Month For further ECSM material For the ECSM Feasibility study (end 2011).     Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items; http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

30 new top cyber security advisors appointed to the EU Agency ENISA’s Permanent Stakeholders’ Group

New Permanent Stakeholders’ Group (PSG) of top IT-security advisors appointed.

A new composition of 30 top IT-security experts have started their term of office as members of ENISA’s Permanent Stakeholders’ Group (PSG). The PSG will give top IT security advice to the EU’s ‘cyber security’ Agency ENISA, the European Network and Information Security Agency. The PSG is a group of leading IT-security experts that gives advice to the Agency’s Executive Director in, for example, drawing up a proposal for the Agency's annual Work Programme. The selected applicants are appointed personally, ‘ad personam’ as PSG Members. That means that they neither represent a country, nor a company, but are selected upon the basis of their own specific expertise and personal merits. The term of office for the members is 2.5 years, i.e. 2012-2015. The first meeting of the new PSG will take place on 13 September 2012, in Athens. A list of the appointed members can be downloaded from here: https://www.enisa.europa.eu/about-enisa/structure-organization/psg/members   The Executive Director of ENISA, Prof. Udo Helmbrecht, comments: “I am delighted to be able to announce the appointment of 30 dedicated top cyber security advisors as members of this new PSG. The information security of Europe needs more cooperation, dialogue and interaction with all the security stakeholders. The PSG therefore plays a crucial role in this respect, giving us cutting-edge input from EU industry, academia and consumers. I am thus looking forward to working closely with the entire new PSG. I am confident that their individual expertise will contribute with valuable insights and ideas to the Agency. As Chair of the PSG, I will closely involve them in ENISA’s future work, and I will in particular value their advice on the Agency’s Work Programme.” Background: Earlier this year, an open Call for Expression of Interest for Membership of the PSG was issued. Subsequent to a short-listing of a number of applicants, the Executive Director of ENISA selected 30 experts, informed the Agency Management Board of his decision and appointed the experts ad personam as members of the new PSG. For the full list of the new PSG members, and further details, please refer to: https://www.enisa.europa.eu/about-enisa/structure-organization/psg/members/psglist For interviews: Graeme Cooper, Head of Public Affairs, press@enisa.europa.eu, mobile phone: +30 6951 782 268, or Ingrida Taurina, PSG Secretariat, ingrida.taurina@enisa.europa.eu Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items; http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

New animated logo of the European Cyber Security Month now online

The Agency is launching the animation of the European Cyber Security Month (ECMS) logo.

This animated logo has been achieved by using the portraits sent by people who participated in the advertising campaign of ENISA, launched at the beginning of this summer, inviting them to become the ‘face’ of the ECSM. The animation underline the key features of the logo; the key symbolising security, the shape of a person in profile, and the human factor in the centre, among other characteristics.  The reasoning behind this campaign is to visualise that cyber security ultimately is backed up by people, showing their determination and commitment to do their part. This short animation will be used together with other material to promote cyber security to citizens. The objectives of the European Cyber Security Month, which is taking place in October, is to increase knowledge of Network and Information Security (NIS) issues, modify perceptions of threats, and provide updated security information through education, good practices and competitions. Brief background: The European Commission’s Digital Agenda for Europe, action point 32: “Strengthen the fight against cybercrime at international level” specifically identifies a European Cyber Security Month.   For more background on the European Cyber Security Month For further ECSM material For the ECSM Feasibility study (end 2011).     Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items; http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Smart grids in focus at CRITIS12 conference in Norway

ENISA supports the key, 7th, critical information infrastructure protection conference of CRITIS, taking place in Lillehammer, Norway, 17-18 September 2012.

CRITIS is a highly reputable conference, gathering academics experts from all over the world to present their innovative research ideas and to explore new challenges in the critical information infrastructures security. ENISA is organizing a track within this conference, with focus on vulnerability and risk assessment for industrial control systems (ICS) and smart grids. ENISA Track Objectives ENISA's studies have shown that current control systems environments' risk assessments do not identify or prioritize most significant technical risks and potential impacts to operations that would support the business case for investing in cyber security. For that reason, new risk assessment methodologies are needed in order to address the vulnerabilities and complexity of the industrial environments. If you are interested in ICS and smart grid security, take advantage of the opportunity of presence of field experts, and join us. Agenda Workshop date: 18th of September Expected results; Identifying the key requirements for a new risk assessment methodology for the ICS and smart grids. Registration You can register at http://critis12.hig.no/registration/ Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items; http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

EU agency ENISA analyses cyber security legislation & spots implementation gaps; incidents remain undetected or not reported

In a new paper the EU ‘cyber security’ agency ENISA takes a snapshot of existing and future EU legislation on security measures and incident reporting. The analysis underlines important steps forward, but also identifies gaps in national implementation, as most incidents are not reported.

Cyber security incidents significantly impact society. Here are five well-known examples: In 2012, millions of business network passwords were exposed In 2011, the storm Dagmar wrecked millions of Scandinavian communication links In 2011, a British data centre failure interrupted millions of business communications worldwide In 2011, a certificate authority was breached exposing the communications of millions of users In 2010, a Chinese telecom provider hijacked 15% of the world’s internet traffic for 20 minutes Each time, millions of citizens and businesses were seriously impacted. But most incidents are not reported or not even detected. Dr Marnix Dekker and Chris Karsberg, the report’s co-authors, argue: “Cyber incidents are most commonly kept secret when discovered, leaving customers and policymakers in the dark about frequency, impact and root causes.” The new report ’’Cyber Incident Reporting in the EU’’ provides an overview of existing and planned legislation (please see graphic attached) covering the mandatory incident reporting clauses in Article 13a of the Telecom package and Article 4 of the e-privacy directive, the proposed e-ID regulation’s Article 15, and Articles 30, 31, 32 of the Data Protection reform. The study shows common factors and differences between the articles and looks ahead to the EU cyber security strategy. The paper also identifies areas for improvement. For example, only one of the above-mentioned incidents was within the scope of the national regulators mandate, indicating that there are gaps in the regulation. Thus, EU-wide sharing of incident reports sharing should be improved. Much progress has been made recently: An ENISA working group for national regulators has developed both a common set of security measures and an incident reporting format. This will enable a more uniform implementation of Article 13a. ENISA just received reports on 51 large incidents from the regulators, describing impact, root causes, actions taken and lessons learnt. This material is used as input for the European cyber security strategy and the European cyber security exercise. The Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht, commented: “Incident reporting is essential to obtain a true cyber security picture. The EU’s cyber security strategy is an important step and one of its goals is to extend the scope of reporting provisions like Article 13a beyond the telecommunications sector.” For Full Report Background: European Cyber Security Strategy and Art 13a working group documents For interviews: Ulf Bergstrom, Spokesman, ENISA, press@enisa.europa.eu, Mobile: + 30 6948 460 143, or, Dr Marnix Dekker, ENISA, marnix.dekker@enisa.europa.eu Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items; http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA General Report 2011

ENISA has published its annual General Report containing details of the Agency's work and achievements during 2011.

The Report covers ENISA's operational activities, including resilience, critical information infrastructure protection (CIIP), secure services and assisting Member States with operational security issues. Relations with ENISA's stakeholders are also included. To read the full publication please click here. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items; http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Annual Privacy Forum 2012 - registration now open

Online registration is now open for the Annual Privacy Forum 2012. This is the event's first year, and it takes place on 10th &11th October in Limassol, Cyprus.

ENISA is organising the Forum in collaboration with DG CONNECT, the University of Cyprus and the Cypriot EU Council Presidency. This event's theme is closing the loop from research to policy. The Annual Privacy Forum is an official event of the Cypriot EU-Presidency, and takes place in Limassol, Cyprus. There is a special discounted fee for delegates who register before 7th September - click REGISTRATION, below, for details. Please find the provisional programme  online   For  REGISTRATION Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items; http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

National Cyber Security Strategies Workshop

ENISA is organising a workshop on National Cyber Security Strategies. The event will take place on 27th September in Brussels.

Under its Work Program 2012, ENISA has launched a project on cyber security strategies. The objective is to collect information on good practices and to present practical guidelines for the Member States to develop, implement and maintain a national cyber security strategy. ENISA has already performed an internal stock-taking activity and has collected inputs and contributions from experts from both the private and the public sector. To validate the findings and related recommendations from the project, ENISA is organising a workshop which aims to engage, in an open discussion, those involved in cyber security strategies. The inputs and contributions that will be collected during the event will be further analysed and included in ENISA’s final deliverable which is foreseen to be published in Q4, 2012. ENISA has already published a paper on national cyber security strategies which includes preliminary findings from the project. The paper can be found here. The Agency is particularly keen to have participation from those responsible and involved in cyber security strategies. If you wish to attend the workshop please register by completing the online registration form available here. Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items; http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA will participate in the ISSE 2012

This year’s ISSE shall take place in Brussels on 23-24 of October, and ENISA shall be participating actively in several sessions, disseminating the achievements of the Agency in the areas of Security Management, Cloud Computing security and Internet Security Strategy.

This content-rich and thought-provoking conference will encourage knowledge sharing and peer-to-peer discussion through presentation sessions, debates and workshops. With special emphasis placed on case studies and innovative and robust security solutions implemented by European organisations, the event will focus on key security topics. Please find the full Programme here. For more information http://www.isse.eu.com/ Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items; http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

ENISA calls for a joint effort between end-users and service providers to protect our online identity

In the cyber world our identity is reflected by our usernames and passwords. For users, keeping their passwords safe is vital to avoid security incidents such as identity theft. But online service providers (who store usernames and passwords) are expected to do the same.

Problems arise when security is compromised at either end of the chain. Passwords protect sensitive information – whether it be financial or health data, private material, intellectual property, customer lists, etc. Yet, just halfway through 2012, data breaches have already exposed millions of citizens’ personal data including password information. ENISA is urging service providers to take preventive actions to better protect sensitive data. More information on how service providers should improve the safety of their users’ information, prevent data leaks and offer a more secure service to citizens is contained in this latest Flash Note.   For interviews: Ulf Bergstrom, Spokesman, ENISA, press@enisa.europa.eu, Mobile: + 30 6948 460 143 or , cert-relations@enisa.europa.eu Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items; http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Visit by the European Ombudsman

ENISA was pleased today, (19th, July) to host a visit from the European Ombudsman, as part of his series of “own-initiative” visits to all European Union Agencies.

ENISA is the 12th EU-body that the European Ombudsman Professor Nikiforos Diamandouros  has visited so far, since 2011. He was joined this time by his Legal Advisor Mr Antonios Antoniadis. The European Ombudsman is looking at administrative good practices of all EU-bodies, to assure that there are practices, policies and principles in place for good administration. This includes, amongst other things, recruitment, selection procedures, governance procedures and transparency, whistleblowing, confidentiality rules, ethics of good administration and conduct for civil servants, usability and availability of the web site as to be transparent, and other matters of good administration for public bodies. Having good administration in place is part of making the EU system more democratically transparent for the citizens. The office of the European Ombudsman works with the public EU-bodies in a constructive dialogue to improve this system. During the visit the European Ombudsman met the Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht, relevant ENISA staff members, and the ENISA Staff Committee.  European Ombudsman’s work more in detail The European Ombudsman works together with the inspected bodies, as an external mechanism of control. His office constitutes a repository and access to a vast amount of knowledge on good administrative behaviour. This is to the benefit and at the disposal of all EU bodies. They can receive administrative advice, and use the European Ombudsman as a mechanism of guidance, who can transmit best practices of other bodies, so as to improve the proceedings of a particular EU body in a specific field. The office of the Ombudsman investigates the practices and administration practices of the EU bodies, so as to secure and improve the good, democratic and modern administrative behaviour with its advice and recommendations. The European Ombudsman also recently published his guide on ethical principles for EU officials . Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items; http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS

Visit to ENISA from the European Parliament’s ITRE Committee

ENISA’s Executive Director, Professor Udo Helmbrecht and the management team hosted a delegation from the European Parliament’s Committee for Industry, Research, and Energy (ITRE) today, Wednesday, 18th July, 2012.

The group  included ITRE Committee Rapporteur, Mr Giles Chichester  MEP (European Conservatives and Reformists, UK) and MEPs Amelia Andersdotter (Greens/European Free Alliance, Sweden) and Ivailo Kaflin (Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, Bulgaria). During the visit, meetings and discussions took place with the management and ENISA’s staff.   Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases! News items; http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS PRs: http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS