Cyber Europe 2016, the latest in a biannual series of trans-European IT security exercises arranged by The European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA), came to a conclusion last week.
The exercises saw 28 EU member states, along with Norway and Switzerland take part. Thousands of IT security experts took part in the exercise. The last time this exercise was run in 2014, which involved approximately 200 organisations.
The 2016 event, which began in April, is thought to have been larger and more comprehensive than any EU cyber security event so far.
ENISA said that the event was a chance for IT security professionals to evaluate realistic, innovative, and complex scenarios.
ENISA said:
“For the first time, a full scenario was developed with actors, media coverage, simulated companies and social media, bringing in the public affairs dimension associated with cyber crises, so as to increase realism to a level never seen before in cyber-security exercises.”
Representatives from over 300 organisations, which included commercial IT service providers, EU institutions, ministries, and IT security agencies worked together on combatting a simulated threat that had been on the horizon for six months.
The scenario for CE2016 drew on threats to cloud computing, the internet of things (IoT), and critical national infrastructure (CNI), utilising ransomware, mobile malware, innovative exfiltration tactics and drones.
The exercise’s motto was ‘Stronger Together’. ENISA said that a team-first attitude is what is needed on all levels when trying to combat transnational threats. The exercise focused on economic and political policies in their relation to IT security, with a particular emphasis on the Network and Information Security (NIS) directive, which the EU Parliament recently passed.
European commissioner for the digital economy and society, Günther H. Oettinger, said that CE2026 and the NIS directive aim to improve rapport between member states. He said the event offers an opportunity for private and public partners, along with member states, to improve European collaborated and IT security contingency plans.
ENISA executive director Udo Helmbrecht said:
“The role of ENISA in assisting the EU Member States for cyber crises is essential, both by organising exercises and by bringing together key stakeholders. Six years have passed since our first cyber crisis simulation, and in that time the maturity level and response capability on complex cyber issues has increased.”
He went on to say that, even though their preparation is an improvement over what it was, there is still more to be done, and that cyber crime has proven to be at a more sophisticated stage than ever.
Simulation exercises are a great way for IT security professionals to pit their wits against the type of threats we are seeing today. These professionals are highly valuable assets in today’s cyber climate, with the next breach seemingly never too far away. Companies need to take more advantage of these professionals by creating cyber security jobs to ensure that they have the necessary skills in-house to fend off the next threat, and to limit the damage in the event of a successful breach.
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