EU Member States will discuss, on Tuesday 1 February, the large-scale cyber-attack simulation exercise that has been carried out within the EU since 8 January in the framework of the Horizontal Working Party on Cyber Issues. This topic will also be discussed, on 4 February, by the Member States’ permanent ambassadors to the EU.
During these discussions, Member States will be required to assess the situation and present measures to mitigate the impact of the crisis at national level and prepare a response to the most affected Member States.
Member States will also have to take stock of what additional measures the EU could provide and detail what additional information they would like to have to analyse the situation accurately.
This exercise, which aims to test cooperation between the technical, operational and political levels in the event of a major incident, bases its scenario on situations that have already occurred. In this case, the scenario involves two directly affected Member States with critical operators affected. A number of other Member States are not directly affected, but are experiencing significant socio-economic impacts.
The intensity and impact of the attack will gradually increase and lead to “the saturation of the response capacities of several Member States, which will result in a request for mutual assistance and the development of a coordinated global response”, says a document from the French Presidency of the EU Council dated 28 January.
The last simulated phase took place on 28 January, when the EU Council’s Integrated Political Crisis Response (IPCR) mechanism was activated to facilitate information exchange. During this phase of the exercise, the EU Council also mandated the European Commission and the European External Action Service to prepare an integrated situation awareness and analysis report.
See the document: https://aeur.eu/f/3x (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)