What is this European “cyber shield” announced for 2024?

The announcement has a little taste of science fiction come true. European Commissioner Thierry Breton announced on Wednesday that he wanted to create a “European cyber shield” in the coming months. Like the “Star Wars” that Ronald Reagan declared in the 1980s? The plan is already more concrete, as the threat increases in the context of the war in Ukraine.

The warrior context is also well cited by the European Commissioner in charge of the Internal Market and Digital, who also mentions a “reserve cyber army”. But why does Europe want a common mechanism? How will this “shield” work? On what bases will European solidarity be applied? 20 minutes make the point.

Why is cyber defense a European problem?

In an increasingly digitized and dematerialized society, malware and ransomware are already on the increase, targeting hospitals in particular. There is therefore a real question of public safety, but hackers do not necessarily target their victims in a disinterested way. “With the war in Ukraine, cyberattacks jumped 140% in Europe last year,” reveals Thierry Breton in an interview with Echoes. “Coincidentally,” these activities are increasing on countries that send weapons to Ukraine, he added during an interview on LCI on Wednesday morning.

In the war that Russia is waging in Ukraine, the digital dimension is indeed not forgotten. Even before its military offensive, Russia had launched a vast cyberespionage operation, in order to prepare attacks and to identify the entire Ukrainian population, according to the American cybersecurity group Mandiant, which has been helping Kiev since the summer of 2021. Surveillance, disinformation but also attacks against government sites… So many battles that now have to be waged online during a conflict between States.

How will this “shield” be put in place?

The idea was already presented by the European Commission in December 2020, and the “cyber shield” should be operational next year. Including a “reserve cyber army”, it is a device provided for in the “Cyber ​​Solidarity Act”, a regulation that Thierry Breton will present in Brussels on April 18. The detection of attacks will be entrusted to a European network of six or seven SOCs (Cyber ​​Security Operational Centers), distributed in strategic locations on EU territory. On a daily basis, the SOCs will be responsible for monitoring all sensitive networks in the Union to anticipate attacks.

Equipped with supercomputers and artificial intelligence systems, they will operate on the model of the Galileo satellite system, explains Thierry Breton. Three first major SOCs will be deployed this year, without waiting for the vote on this new regulation. The investment will amount to “more than 1 billion euros, two-thirds financed by Europe”, he specified to the Echoes. Seventeen countries participated in the financing.

A solidarity based on what?

The new regulation also provides for a partnership between Member States to strengthen the resilience of critical infrastructures in the European Union (airports, power stations, gas pipelines, electricity networks, Internet cables, etc.) with attack scenarios and penetration tests to detect vulnerabilities. In the event of a major attack, a “cyber emergency mechanism” will be provided: immediate exchange of information, joint crisis management and mutual assistance.

This is where the “cyber reserve, made up of several thousand stakeholders, public and private service providers, on a voluntary basis, to support the defense effort in the event of an attack” comes into play, says Thierry Breton. “This cyber reserve will be ready to intervene at the request of any Member State”, he specifies. It remains to be seen who will lead this reserve, a subject which risks opposing Member States and the European Commission.

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