Europe's third way in cyberspace: what part does the new EU Cybersecurity Act play?

Cybersecurity has become a key issue for Europe in the global digital transformation. The EU Cybersecurity Act lays down a legal framework whose aim is to achieve global reach. Embedded in a policy that combines digital sovereignty with strategic inter­dependence, the Act could represent the gateway to a third European pathway in cyber­space, something in between the US model of a liberal market economy and the Chinese model of authoritarian state capitalism. The Cybersecurity Act will be a bind­ing framework for action and provide a tailwind for German cybersecurity policy. (author's abstract

EU cybersecurity capacity building in the Mediterranean and the Middle East

Cyberthreats on the Rise The 2008 Report on the implementation of the European Security Strategy included “cybersecurity” for the first time among the priorities of the EU’s external action, stating that: “modern economies are heavily reliant on critical infrastructure including transport, communication and power supplies, but also the Internet.” If the EU Strategy for a Secure Information Society, adopted two years before, already addressed “cybercrime,” the proliferation of cyber-attacks “against private or government IT systems” gave the spread of cyber-capabilities a “new dimension, as a potential new economic, political and military weapon.” An EU Cybersecurity Strategy was adopted in 20132 followed, in 2016, by a first EU “Directive on Security of Network and Information Systems,” known as the “NIS Directive,” which harmonized the EU Member States’ legislations