Successful collaborative cyber security awareness raising - Large Scale Pilot for EU SME business & citizens;two new reports launched by EU Agency ENISA on the European Information Sharing and Alert System (EISAS)

A recent Eurobarometer survey reveals that most EU citizens (59%) feel unprepared to protect their online information. Moreover, cyber security is generally in the hands of specialists who implement technical solutions. Citizens and SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) are left out of this action, despite the fact that end users’ cyber security awareness is ‘the first line of defence’ against cyber threats.

The EISAS Large Scale Pilot involved national and governmental Computer Emergency Response Teams, public and private organisations involved in awareness raising in four EU Member States: Germany, Hungary, Poland and Spain as well as Norway. All the pilot participants cooperated in cross-border awareness-raising efforts. This empowered citizens and SMEs with the necessary skills and security knowledge to protect themselves from major cyber threats: Botnets, identity theft and social engineering. The awareness material was translated, adapted and disseminated to target audiences in each Member State. Finally, the pilot reached more than 1700 European citizens and employees with tailored security information, using social media, public websites, and targeted mailing lists as communication channels for targeting EU citizens and SMEs.

This pilot demonstrated that the EISAS approach of European collaboration in awareness raising works. The successful pilot results now need to be sustained by a brokering actor. In the pilot, ENISA had this role, but it now has to be transferred to a collaborative community of willing stakeholders. In this regard, the Directorate General for Home Affairs’ NISHA project –Network for Information Sharing and Alerting is a promising candidate for such information brokerage.

In 2013, ENISA will support EISAS by running a study to identify the suitable actors and organisation for its full deployment.

The Executive Director of ENISA, Professor Udo Helmbrecht, remarked; “No firewall or security policy can efficiently protect users unless they are aware of the risks. Therefore, the EISAS pilot is important for the European citizens and businesses, in particular the SMEs, constituting 98% of the European economy.”

For EISAS Large Scale Pilot Report

For EISAS 2012 Roadmap

Background documents:

2011 EISAS basic toolset. EU’s Internal Security Strategy.

For interviews; Ulf Bergstrom, Spokesman, press@enisa.europa.eu, mobile: +30 6948 460 143, or Romain Bourgue, Expert, opsec@enisa.europa.eu