ENISA publishes first edition of Country Reports on Network and Information Security

The Country Reports are an assessment of the ongoing and planned activities of NIS in each of the 30 European countries covered. Each country chapter contains, among other sections: Country Highlights, Key Stakeholders Overview, Activities, and Current Trends (e.g. focusing on the status of national electronic ID schemes, and the major incidences of security breaches involving data loss).

The categorisation and mapping of stakeholders and their mutual relations was one of the main aims of the report. The most important areas in which national-level organisations have an impact on NIS were charted, namely: Policy Development (the drafting of, or assistance in the process of drafting, governmental policies relating to NIS); Policy Implementation; Privacy and Data Protection; Electronic Communications; Critical Infrastructure Protection / Critical Information Infrastructure Protection (CIP/CIIP); and Computer Emergency Response Team (CERTs).

The report found that institutions and responsibilities vary substantially from one country to another. However, some general trends were identified. These are as follows:

The most important actors for defining NIS policies are Governmental Organisations and Bodies: e.g. the Ministry of Communications, the National Regulatory Agency for Electronic Communications (where established), the National Office for Data Protection, the Ministries of Interior, Defence, or those having shared responsibilities for different areas of NIS.
Public Network and Information Security Bodies: Public NIS bodies with broad responsibilities exist in about one third of the countries. Their main tasks are, among others, information gathering for IT security issues and scientific advice. Many also approve and certify the security of national information systems.
CERTs: There are over 100 CERTs active in the EU, but their geographical distribution is very uneven. Almost all countries have 1 or 2 public sector CERTs. Most CERT act as the national NIS point of contact and coordinate crisis response