Amid Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Ukraine’s initiation of accession talks with the EU, both parties have agreed to enhance their cybersecurity collaboration in the wake of an escalating threat landscape at the third Cyber Dialogue in Brussels, Belgium. The parties emphasized their dedication to the UN framework for responsible state behavior in cyberspace, which is based on international law and norms of responsible conduct. They also agreed to intensify their cooperation on cyber diplomacy in international forums.
The move comes amidst the EU continuing ‘to be strongly committed to fully support Ukraine’s resilience capabilities against cyber-attacks and disruptions of critical infrastructure.’
The dialogue was co-chaired by Manon Le Blanc, coordinator for cyber issues and acting head of division for hybrid threats and cyber at the European External Action Service (EEAS), Christiane Kirketerp de Viron, acting director for digital society for trust and cybersecurity at the Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT) of the European Commission, and Volodymyr Karastelov, acting head of the cyber department at the Security Service of Ukraine.
Participants included representatives from the Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) and Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs (DG HOME) of the European Commission, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), CERT-EU, the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre, Europol, European Security and Defence College, European Union Advisory Mission (EUAM), European Union Military Assistance Mission (EUMAM), and various Ukrainian government and military bodies, such as the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Digital Transformation, National Security and Defence Council, the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection, Cyber Security Situation Center of the Security Service, and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The EU and Ukraine also discussed at the Cyber Dialogue the evolving cyber threat landscape, shared recent updates on the latest legislative developments, because of Ukraine’s alignment, including on the Network and Information Security (NIS) 2 Directive and product security and certification, and discussed related efforts to build cyber resilience and cyber defenses. They further explored practical cooperation efforts to prevent, detect, deter, and respond to malicious cyber activities, notably by strengthening the resilience of critical infrastructure and supply chains as well as through the use of the EU Cyber Diplomacy Toolbox.
Moreover, in a context where the use of cyber operations has enabled and accompanied Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and continues to affect global stability and security, they agreed to enhance exchanges on situational awareness, assessment of cyber risks, cyber crisis management as well as around the use of the EU Cyber Diplomacy Toolbox and its cyber sanctions regime.
The EU has significantly stepped up its cyber support to Ukraine since the beginning of the unprovoked and unjustified Russian war of aggression in February 2022 and is committed to continuing to support Ukraine to strengthen its cyber resilience, reinforce interaction, and support prevention, detection, deterrence, and response to cyber threats, notably as regards critical infrastructure and networks. Projects, such as ‘CyberEast’ that focuses on improving cyber resilience in the Eastern Partnership countries will also continue. Moreover, cyber support efforts will be coordinated with Member States and partners, including through the Tallinn Mechanism.
At the Cyber Dialogue, the EU and Ukraine also discussed the pathways that could allow Ukraine to benefit from the use of the EU Cybersecurity Reserve as well as to organize additional training for civilian and military entities based on Ukraine’s needs by the European Security and Defence College, the European Union Advisory Mission (EUAM) and the EU Military Assistance Mission in support of Ukraine (EUMAM).
The EU and Ukraine are committed to continuing the strong cooperation among relevant authorities, including the structured cooperation ensured through the working arrangement with ENISA and operational agreement with Europol.
Last November, ENISA formalized a Working Arrangement with its Ukraine counterparts focused on capacity-building, best practices exchange, and boosting situational awareness. The Working Arrangement builds on the discussion initiated last year in Warsaw during the EU-Ukraine Cybersecurity Dialogue and will be a key item at the next Dialogue. A work plan will operationalize the Working Arrangement.
In the context of a shared commitment to a resilient cyber partnership, the EU and Ukraine agreed to advance on concrete operational results to hold the 4th EU-Ukraine Cyber Dialogue in 2025.
This post was originally published on 3rd party site mentioned in the title of this site
