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Cybersecurity
Background EU Cybersecurity Act & EU Cybersecurity Agency
The European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council of the
In September 2017 the Commission EU reached an agreement on the final text of this Regulation in early 2019.
adopted a cyber security package The Regulation was published in the Official Journal of the EU and has started
to apply.
containing a series of initiatives to
further improve EU cyber-resilience, The Regulation sets up European cybersecurity certification schemes for
deterrence and defence. The package specific ICT (Information and Communication Technology) processes,
included the creation of an EU products, and services and it upgrades the current ENISA into a permanent
EU Agency for Cybersecurity. European cybersecurity certification schemes
Cybersecurity Agency based on the
are intended to help harmonise cybersecurity practices within the Union in
existing European Agency for Network order to increase security against cyber threats. In particular:
and Information Security (ENISA) and
• The EU certification schemes will be adopted by the Commission
the implementation of a voluntary EU-
and implemented and supervised by national cybersecurity certification
wide certification scheme to ensure that authorities. Certification will be voluntary unless otherwise specified in EU
products and services are cyber secure law or Member States’ law.
• Certificates issued under the schemes will attest that
a given ICT product/service/process has been evaluated for
compliance with specific security requirements and they will
be valid in all EU countries. The actual certification schemes will
be built on what already exists at international, European and
national level.
• Each European cybersecurity certificate might refer to one
of the three different assurance levels: “basic”, “substantial” and
“high”. The assurance levels would provide the corresponding
rigour and depth of the evaluation of the ICT product/service/
process (the level of evaluation, not the security of product
concerned) and would be characterised by reference to
technical specifications and standards the purpose of which is
to mitigate or prevent cyber incidents.
• Manufacturers or service providers are allowed to carry
out conformity assessment themselves, but the EU statement
of conformity (instead of a certificate) can only refer to the
Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for the “basic” assurance level.
Digital Economy and Society, said:
Furthermore, ENISA will be a centre of expertise on cybersecurity and will
“We need to build on the trust of our
have more human and financial resources. It will support EU policy on
citizens and businesses in the digital cybersecurity and play a central role in the establishment and maintenance
world, especially at a time when large- of certification schemes with the expert assistance and close cooperation
of national certification authorities and industry. It will set up a website
scale cyber-attacks are becoming
providing information on certificates and will organise regular EU-level
more and more common. I want high cybersecurity exercises, including a large-scale comprehensive exercise once
cyber security standards to become every two years.
the new competitive advantage of our
companies.”
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Other Cybersecurity Initiatives to the needs and characteristics of the relevant entities.
Furthermore, the ESAs propose to establish on a voluntary
ENISA’s tasks will be complemented by the new European basis an EU wide coherent testing framework together
Cybersecurity Industrial, Technology and Research Centre with other relevant authorities, taking into account existing
the activities of which should not duplicate those of ENISA. initiatives, and with a focus on Threat Led Penetration
The Commission’s proposal adopted in September 2018 Testing. In the long term, the ESAs aim to ensure a sufficient
provides that the aim of this Centre will be to establish a top cyber maturity level of identified cross-sector entities.
knowledge base for cybersecurity. Its task will be to enhance
the coordination of research and innovation in the field of Commission consultation on digital resilience
cybersecurity. It will also be the EU’s main instrument to for financial services and crypto-assets
pool investment in cybersecurity research, technology and
industrial development. The Centre will be established for On 19 December 2019, the European Commission launched
the period of 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2029. After two public consultations:
that date, it will be wound up, unless decided otherwise.
1. on the digital operational resilience in the area of financial
As a further step of reinforcing EU cybersecurity capability, services; and
the establishment of a Network of Cybersecurity 2. on an EU framework for markets in crypto-assets.
Competence Centres is envisaged. This network will consist
of National Coordination Centres designated by Member Considering that the financial sector is the largest user
States. The national Centres will either possess or have of information and communications technology (ICT) in
access to technological expertise in cybersecurity, for the world and that this dependence will further increase
example, in areas such as cryptography, intrusion detection with the growing use of emerging models, concepts or
or human aspects of security. technologies, the operational resilience -and the cyber
A third structure will be also created, the Cybersecurity resilience- of the sector hinges to a large extent on ICT, as
Competence Community, which will bring together the it may become vulnerable to cyber-attacks. Furthermore,
main stakeholders (including, among others, industry, crypto-assets are one of the major applications of
academic and non-profit research organisations and public blockchain for finance. Crypto-assets are commonly
entities) to enhance and spread cybersecurity expertise defined as a type of private assets that depend primarily on
across the EU. cryptography and distributed ledger technology as part of
their inherent value.
ESAs Advice on the costs and benefits of a
coherent cyber resilience testing framework The aim of the consultation on digital operational resilience,
to which BIPAR contributed, is to inform the Commission
As a follow-up to the European Commission in its March on the development of a potential EU cross-sectoral digital
2018 FinTech Action Plan, the ESAs published in April 2019 operational resilience framework in the area of financial
a Joint Advice on the costs and benefits of a coherent services. The Commission is now working to present a
cyber resilience testing framework for significant market legislative proposal in Q3 2020, to strengthen the digital
participants and infrastructures within the EU financial operational resilience of the EU financial sector entities.
sector. The Commission’s intentions is to streamline and upgrade
existing rules and bringing in new requirements where
The ESAs see clear benefits of such a framework. However, there are gaps.
the ESAs assessment demonstrated the existence of
fragmentation in the scope, granularity and specificity of The consultation on crypto-assets aims to inform the
ICT and security/cyber security provisions across the EU Commission’s ongoing work in this respect: (i) for crypto-
financial services legislation. In the short term, the ESAs assets that are covered by EU rules by virtue of qualifying
advised the Commission to focus on achieving a minimum as financial instruments under the MiFID II - or as electronic
level of cyber-resilience across the sectors, proportionate money/e-money under the Electronic Money Directive, the
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