Effective protection of Critical Infrastructures against cyber threats

Critical infrastructure is a long-standing priority in Europe and globally.

Critical infrastructure describes the physical and cyber systems and assets which are essential to maintain vital societal functions. This term has expanded over the years, originally from the transportation infrastructure to utilities, to include healthcare, energy and various manufacturers. With this, the threat landscape for critical infrastructure organisation continues to grow more precarious with more and more high-profile attacks taking place. This is also evolving as the way we work changes, as well as with the number of connected devices in many critical infrastructure environments increasing. This has been exacerbated with the Covid-19 pandemic with many of the workforces connecting remotely. This is also changing the definition of critical infrastructures, with making our personal protective equipment for instance included in this area, and also the importance of supply chains as well with disruption during the pandemic potentially cutting its traffic.

Fortunately, the European Commission understands the importance of effectively protecting these infrastructures, providing essential services to citizens, hence their investment in innovative systems contributing to tackling this situation.

In response, Cyberwatching.eu organised its 15^th webinar entitled “Effective protection of Critical Infrastructures against the cyber threat”, which has been one of its largest yet, gathering over 140 live attendees out of 230 registered participants from 18 countries around the globe. As a remit, in this report, three (3) research and innovation (R&I) projects CyberSANE, CYBERWISER.eu and ReACT, and the European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO), collaborated with Cyberwatching.eu to provide a consolidated overview of the most significant barriers and recommendations in the area of cybersecurity and privacy concerning critical infrastructures with advanced systems for timely detection, monitoring, handling and treating different risks and attacks.

Read the short webinar report we prepared provides further recommendations on critical infrastructures.

Download a copy now!