On October 10–11 representatives of the countries taking part in the Lithuanian-initiated EU Cyber Rapid Response Teams and Mutual Assistance in Cyber Security project are meeting in Vilnius. Lithuania initiated the project to develop a six-month rotational Cyber Rapid Response Teams (CRRTs) that would be formed by cyber incident investigation and other security institutions experts from the participating countries. The meeting in Vilnius has been convened to mutually agree to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and to discuss technical and operational aspects of the project, potential compositions of the teams, capability development plan.
The MoU is one of the cornerstone documents of the project which sets the principles the cooperation among the project participants will be based on while creating the agreed cyber security capabilities. The project is developed within the framework of the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO).
Vice Minister of National Defence Edvinas Kerza underscored at the meeting the importance of syndicate of the participating countries’ companies which would allow applications for financing for developing new generation technical cyber security toolkit.
Vice Minister also welcomed a new member of the project, Italy. Currently 8 EU Member States – Croatia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Netherlands, Romania, Italy, and Finland are participants of the EU PESCO Cyber Rapid Response Teams and Mutual Assistance in Cyber Security project , and another 6 –Belgium, France, Germany Greece, Slovenia, and Spain, are observers.
The project is coordinated by a team of experts of the Cyber Security and Information Technology Policy Group of the Ministry of National Defence.
The multinational CRRTs comprise 6 to 8 cyber security specialists. The CRRTs could respond to cyber incidents within 72 hours from receiving requests from states, EU institutions, or military operations and missions. The teams could also take preventive action – carry out cyber vulnerability assessments. The multinational CRRTs are designed to ensure resources of states and institutions are used in the most effective manner when managing cyber threats. The first CRRT formed in the framework of this project has entered standby earlier in 2019.
The initiative on creation of joint EU CRRTs and Mutual Assistance in Cyber Security project is one of the 34 projects approved under the Council of the EU Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) framework.
The Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) is an instrument laid out in the Treaty of Lisbon, for deepening the cooperation in security and defence area for those EU member states that have military capabilities meeting higher criteria and are bound by greater commitments.
Photo credits: Alfredas Pliadis (MoD)
