The European Union has reportedly drafted plans for a new cyber security task force that will respond to attacks across the bloc.
The 'Joint Cyber Unit' could be unveiled by the European Commission as soon as Wednesday, according to proposals seen by Politico.
What is ransomware?
The unit would allow member states hit by cyber attacks to ask for help from other countries within the EU, including through rapid response teams that will be deployed to fight off hackers "in real-time", according to the draft.
The plans come in response to the growing threat of cyber attacks that have plagued the continent over the last few years, which included the first death caused by a ransomware attack on a Berlin hospital, earlier in the year. The drafted plans aim to pool together the cyber security powers of all the national governments within the bloc.
A specific, central cyber unit was first talked up by the commission in 2019, as a way of stopping cyber attacks that could compromise EU institutions, agencies and leading European companies and organisations.
RELATED RESOURCE
What is due to come on Wednesday is merely an official "recommendation" to national governments that would put the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) in charge of the unit, potentially from an office in Brussels, and will be similar to the Washington-based ransomware task force recently proposed by the US government. The European version would theoretically coordinate existing work between cyber agencies and authorities across the bloc.
"Over the last few weeks we have seen governments take positive steps to bolster cyber security, and this is another positive step," said Raghu Nandakumara, field CTO at Illumio.
"Cyber security is always most effective when there is healthy collaboration between groups, and in that light the formation of the Joint Cyber Unit by the European Commission is very welcome. It's a logical progression from the 2016 NIS Directive which required individual member states to be appropriately equipped, facilitated strategic cooperation and information exchange, and imbibed a culture of security in sectors critical to the economy and security."
-
Swiss government data published following supply chain attack – here’s what we know about the culpritsNews Radix, a non-profit organization in the health promotion sector, supplies a number of federal offices, whose data has apparently been accessed.
-
GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke thinks there’s still a place for junior developers in the age of AINews GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke believes junior developers still play a crucial role in the hierarchy of software development teams, and AI won't change that any time soon.
-
Swiss government data published following supply chain attack – here’s what we know about the culprits
News Radix, a non-profit organization in the health promotion sector, supplies a number of federal offices, whose data has apparently been accessed.
-
Ransomware victims are getting better at haggling with hackersNews While nearly half of companies paid a ransom to get their data back last year, victims are taking an increasingly hard line with hackers to strike fair deals.
-
LockBit data dump reveals a treasure trove of intel on the notorious hacker groupNews An analysis of May's SQL database dump shows how much LockBit was really making
-
‘I take pleasure in thinking I can rid society of at least some of them’: A cyber vigilante is dumping information on notorious ransomware criminals – and security experts say police will be keeping close tabsNews An anonymous whistleblower has released large amounts of data allegedly linked to the ransomware gangs
-
It's been a bad week for ransomware operatorsNews A host of ransomware strains have been neutralized, servers seized, and key players indicted
-
Everything we know about the Peter Green Chilled cyber attackNews A ransomware attack on the chilled food distributor highlights the supply chain risks within the retail sector
-
Scattered Spider: Who are the alleged hackers behind the M&S cyber attack?News The Scattered Spider group has been highly active in recent years
-
Ransomware attacks are rising — but quiet payouts could mean there's more than actually reported
News Ransomware attacks continue to climb, but they may be even higher than official figures show as companies choose to quietly pay to make such incidents go away.
