EU POLICY TOWARDS PROVIDING CYBER RESILIENCE OF CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY

Abstract

The article analyzes the European Union’s Cybersecurity Strategy for the Digital Decade presented by the European Commission and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy at the end of December 2020. It discusses the efficiency of external policy areas enshrined therein, as well as the outcomes of the the European Union’s cyber diplomacy toolbox option first ever applied – sanctions. Within the scope of the research, a few principal conclusions are reached. First, the European Union’s Cybersecurity Strategy foresees the creation of a European Cyber Shield, which will be a network of security operations centers across the Union, to increase the cyber resilience of critical infrastructure. Moreover, it is important that “critical infrastructure” encompasses a quite broad understanding of sectors that provide essential services, such as transport, energy and health, telecommunications, finance, security, democratic processes, space and defense, both public and private. Second, all the strategic directions are aimed at the creation of global capacities to detect, recognize and respond to various cyber threats, and at making critical infrastructure more cyber resilient to malicious activity in cyberspace. For this end, efficient partnership between public and private sectors that foresees information-sharing and cooperation should be established. Finally, this article concludes that the Union plays a key role in promoting responsible state behavior in cyberspaces. It not only endorses the existing binding and non-binding rules, but also advances technological sovereignty and cooperation with various stakeholders – international organizations, both universal and regional, public and private sectors, academia and civil society in the context of international security.