The announcement has a little taste of science fiction come true. European Commissioner Thierry Breton announced Wednesday that he wants to create a "European cyber shield" in the coming months. Like the "Star Wars" that Ronald Reagan declared in the 1980s? The plan is already more concrete, as the threat grows in the context of the war in Ukraine.

The war context is also well cited by the European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Digital, who also evokes a "reserve cyberarmy". But why does Europe want a common mechanism? How will this "shield" work? On what basis will European solidarity apply? 20 Minutes takes stock.

Why is cyber defence a European problem?

In an increasingly digitized and dematerialized society, malware and ransomware are already multiplying, targeting hospitals in particular. So there is a real public safety issue, but hackers don't necessarily target their victims selflessly. "With the war in Ukraine, cyberattacks jumped last year by 140% in Europe," Thierry Breton revealed in an interview with Les Echos. "Coincidentally," these activities are increasing on countries that send weapons to Ukraine, he added in an interview on LCI Wednesday morning.

In Russia's war in Ukraine, the digital dimension is not forgotten. Even before its military offensive, Russia had launched a vast cyberespionage operation, in order to prepare attacks and identify the entire Ukrainian population, according to the American cybersecurity group Mandiant, which has been helping Kiev since the summer of 2021. Surveillance, disinformation but also attacks against government sites... So many battles that must now be waged online during a conflict between states.

How will this "shield" be put in place?

The idea was already presented by the European Commission in December 2020, and the "cyber shield" should be operational next year. Including a "cyber reserve army", it is a device provided for in the "Cyber Solidarity Act", a regulation that Thierry Breton will present in Brussels on 18 April. The detection of attacks will be entrusted to a European network of six or seven SOCs (Cybersecurity Operations Centres), distributed in strategic locations on the territory of the EU. On a day-to-day basis, SOCs will be responsible for monitoring all sensitive networks in the Union to anticipate attacks.

Equipped with supercomputers and artificial intelligence systems, they will operate on the model of the Galileo satellite system, explains Thierry Breton. The first three major SOCs will be deployed this year, without waiting for the vote on this new regulation. The investment will amount to "more than 1 billion euros, two-thirds financed by Europe," he told Les Echos. Seventeen countries participated in the financing.

A solidarity based on what?

The new regulation also provides for a partnership between Member States to strengthen the resilience of the European Union's critical infrastructures (airports, power plants, gas pipelines, electricity grids, Internet cables, etc.) with attack scenarios and penetration tests to detect vulnerabilities. In the event of a major attack, there will be a "cyber emergency mechanism": immediate exchange of information, joint crisis management and mutual assistance.



This is where the "cyber reserve, made up of several thousand stakeholders, public and private providers, on a voluntary basis, comes into play, to support the defense effort in the event of an attack," says Thierry Breton. "This cyber reserve will be ready to intervene at the request of any member state," he said. It remains to be seen who will steer this reserve, a subject that is likely to oppose Member States and the European Commission.

  • War in Ukraine
  • World
  • Brussels
  • European Commission
  • Cybersecurity