High-level cybersecurity officials from EU Member States, the Commission and the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) participate in the two-day operational-level exercise Blue OLEx 2023, in the context of which test the EU’s preparedness against cyber-crises. The exercise is organized within the framework of the EU-CyCLONE European Network of Cybercrisis Liaison Organizations.

The EU CyCLONE network contributes to the implementation of the Commission’s action plan to rapidly respond to large-scale cross-border incidents or cyber security crises. It complements the existing cybersecurity structures at EU level by linking cooperation at the technical level, through the IT Security Incident Response Team, with the political level, e.g. through the integrated political crisis response mechanism, which supports timely and coordinated decision-making at the political level for major and complex crises.

The participants will also discuss strategic cyber policy issues, in particular the ways of forming a coherent crisis management framework at the EU level.

The EU CyCLONE network, which was created in 2020, was formally established by the Directive on measures for a high common level of cybersecurity across the Union (‘NIS 2 Directive’) in January 2023.

Athena Papakosta