We are striving to make Europe more secure and more competitive: a global leader in cybersecurity. However, there are still some hurdles to realising this ambitious goal. Insufficient cooperation between Member States, industry and academia is leading to the isolation of research and development, as well as to a skills shortage; insufficient investment is not helping matters either.

The ultimate goal of CyberSec4Europe as a pilot project is to design the governance structure that will answer the main challenges faced in the field of cybersecurity today. Our first deliverable (D2.1) is the initial milestone in an ongoing examination of the best practices and exploration of governance design. The Regulation Proposal of the European Commission contains ideas for the governance design (summarised in the picture), yet a lot of options remain unresolved. The role and the structure of the Cybersecurity Competence Community, which was left open for interpretation in the Regulation Proposal, will be crucial due to its potential to resolve issues and help realise the goals outlined above. We are exploring a bottom-up approach, realised through local cybersecurity hubs, as a strategy to answer stakeholder demands and to give a fresh boost to cybersecurity development in Europe.

The report is available here on the CyberSec4Europe website!

Natalia I. Kadenko, TU Delft