French presidency of the EU: enhancing cooperation in the event of a cyber crisis

The aim of this French presidency sequence is to test the response capabilities of the EU in the face of a cyber crisis, involving not only the national authorities of each Member State but also the relevant European political bodies in Brussels.

The exercise, mobilizing more specifically the CyCLONe network, has allowed to :

• Strengthen the dialogue between the Member States in terms of strategic crisis assessment and management, as a complement to the dialogue at the technical level (CSIRT-Network);
• Discuss common needs in terms of solidarity and mutual assistance between Member States in the event of a major crisis and begin to identify recommendations as to the work to be carried out to develop them.

This sequence is part of a momentum started several years ago to support the development of cyber capabilities in Member States to deal with a crisis of cyber origin as well as voluntary cooperation. First, at the technical level, through the CSIRT-Network, established by the European directive Network Information Security. Secondly, at the operational level, through the work carried out by the Member States in the CyCLONe framework.

What is the CyCLONe network?

CyCLONe (Cyber Crisis Liaison Organisation Network) was created in 2020. It brings together at the operational level the agencies in charge of cyber crisis management of the 27 Member States to meet two challenges. On the one hand, to share national response strategies in case of a cyber crisis. On the other hand, to coordinate the construction of a consolidated analysis of the crisis, for the benefit of political decision makers, both at national and European levels. ANSSI has taken the presidency of the network in January and will run it until June 2022.

For more information on European cybersecurity: ANSSI’s Papiers numériques are available in English.