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Laws to beef up EU cyber-security backed

EU governments have approved a new law aimed at strengthening the EU’s capacities to detect, prepare for, and respond to cyber-security threats and incidents. 

The Cyber Solidarity Act also beefs up co-operation mechanisms among EU countries. 

The new law sets up a ‘cyber-security alert system’, a pan-European infrastructure composed of national and cross-border cyber hubs across the EU.  

Emergency mechanism 

These will oversee the sharing of information and will be tasked with detecting and acting on cyber-threats.  

The new regulation also provides for the creation of a cyber-security emergency mechanism to increase preparedness and enhance incident-response capabilities in the EU. 

The new law also establishes an incident-review mechanism to assess the effectiveness of actions under the cyber-emergency mechanism. 

Specialist companies 

The EU Council also adopted a targeted amendment to 2019 legislation on cyber-security that would enable the future adoption of European certification schemes for managed-security services provided by specialised companies. 

This is aimed at increasing the quality and comparability of such cyber-security providers. 

Both measures will be published in the EU’s Official Journal in the coming days and will then enter into force 20 days later.