European Commissioner presented EU cybersecurity priorities

At the 8th International Cybersecurity Forum held in Lille, France, the European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Günther Oettinger outlined the cybersecurity policy priorities for the European Commission. Cybersecurity capabilities and cooperation should be enhanced through the recently agreed-upon Network and Information Security (NIS) Directive, which will require setting up national CERTs, with ENISA as secretariat to the network of CERTs, and will introduce security and reporting obligations for companies managing critical infrastructure in sectors such as energy, transport and banking, as well as for key providers of digital services. Having cybersecurity as one of the pillars of Digital Single Market Strategy should encourage globally competitive European-grown cybersecurity industry and strengthen “Europe’s digital sovereignty” – relying on European companies in securing EU digital economy; a contractual public private partnership is to be launched in June to stimulate competitiveness and innovation capacities. Another priority would be bringing “security by design” and “privacy by design” as requirements in all the relevant policy areas of EU, including health, transport, finance, energy and ICT. The fourth priority aims at strengthening trust through providing links between security with privacy and data protection, especially through the future General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that is allegedly being finalises.