Enhancements in The European Union’s Cyber Defense

Abstract

The European Union (EU) is an economic and political union of 28 countries. It operates an internal (or single) market which allows free movement of goods, capital, services and people between member states. The EU and its member states are a hub of economic activity and home to a large number of highly networked and interconnected countries. This makes cyberattacks a critical threat, and the resilience of each country a safeguard for the security of the whole EU and the rest of the world.

The defensive cyber capabilities of the United States continue to rise as the growing threat increases. Nation-state actors look to new foothold and ingress points to the National infrastructure to continue to discredit the US way of life, increasing the need to ensure that it’s global partners also can ensure the safety of the US populous as a whole.

This paper will illuminate some of the threats that have plagued US partners and the need to assist these partners to learn to defend themselves in order to build a stronger cyber capability for United States as well.

Cyber Reality

Cyberattacks are already occurring on a daily basis – in some cases even recognized as state-sponsored. Such aggressions are likely to be used with greater intensity and accuracy in the future, moving ever closer to the sphere of cyber wars that could fall within the remit of Article 5 of the NATO Treaty. In this context, building up Europe’s cyber capabilities is a major priority.

In cyberspace, the terrain in need of defense is not a fixed or relatively limited space in contrast to the geographically bound terrains of air, land, and sea. Both the domain itself and the activity within it are entirely generated by human actions. With each new line of code and each new connected device, the terrain in need of defense expands. To a great extent, evolution and growth will remain inevitable characteristics of this terrain, but there are aspects to this growth and evolution that are not inevitable

Strengthening Europe

The European Union aims to strengthen its cybersecurity rules in order to tackle the increasing threat posed by cyber-attacks as well as to take advantage of the opportunities of the new digital age.

On 18 October 2018, the European Council called for measures to build strong cybersecurity in the European Union. EU leaders referred in particular to restrictive measures able to respond to and deter cyber-attacks.

NATO as a Cyber Enabler

NATO could offer a clear platform for advice and exchange of detailed good practice between Allies through a more extensive variety of formal and informal channels, including NATO’s Defense Planning Process. Such mechanisms might include an organic capability to offer on-the-ground policy, operational and technical support and advice to Allies regarding cyber-defense capability development and implementation. This might include advice on the establishment of a military cyber-security program or brokering the exchange of good practice on resourcing for cyber defense.

More could also be done through facilitating the exchange of cyber situational awareness both between Allies and other relevant international organizations, especially those that have an operational insight into how cyberspace can be misused. States can buy cheaply on the black market sophisticated cyber-attack capability that would otherwise take time and resources to develop. So, interaction with law enforcement is key and practical cooperation with Interpol and Europol would represent a useful first step.

NATO needs to cultivate its complementary role to the EU on cyber issues. It has become clichéd to talk about NATO-EU cooperation on the basis of mutual complementarity, especially given the current debate regarding hybrid warfare or grey-zone conflicts. Nonetheless, both organizations have yet to fully come to terms with how cyber issues that confront one affect the other. On the one hand, militaries rely upon critical infrastructure protection which is the provenance of EU policy-making including via legislation and industry standards. They can also benefit from the insights into criminal cyber activity that can be offered by the EU’s Cyber Crime Centre in The Hague. On the other hand, the economic prosperity of the EU member states and by extension the region as a whole can be (and is being) threatened by state-level actors whose motives may be better understood by NATO.

State Partnerships

National Guard units in the United States have a state partnership program (SPP) that allows guardsmen in the state to work with aligned countries around the world in various military capacities. Maryland actually has two SPPs running in the state, the Air Force National Guard primarily handles Estonia and the Army National Guard works in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Recently, the Maryland Army National Guard had their initial cyber/data encryption seminar with the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina (AF BiH).

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