EU-US Cooperation on Cyber Security & Cyberspace

Cyberspace issues have acquired a growing importance in various international fora, with increasing focus on economic opportunities and threats, norms of behaviour and application of existing international law in cyberspace, as well as on protecting human rights online. The US and the EU share a commitment to support a universal, open, free, and secure Internet, based on an inclusive, effective, and transparent multi-stakeholder model of governance.

EU-US Cooperation on cyber security dates back to the 2010 EU-US summit, where leaders committed to the creation of a Working Group on Cyber Security and Cybercrime. The Working Group has established a solid basis for transatlantic cyber engagements, with remarkable achievements in addressing transnational cybercrime and other cyber threats.

Since then, international cyberspace developments have become central concerns in the broader foreign and security policy of transatlantic partners. In addition, an increasing number of international cyber debates have raised the need for ever closer consultations on major policy positions between strategic partners. A strengthened EU-US dialogue on cross-cutting and foreign policy related cyber issues In view of our shared commitments and inspired by past achievements, the EU and the US decided to strengthen and upgrade their cooperation in cyber issues at the Brussels Summit on 26 March 2014.

The new cyber dialogue will provide a platform to enhance exchanges between the EU and the US on cross-cutting cyber issues, key international cyber developments and foreign policy-related cyber issues. It will complement the already established EU-US cyber engagement, including informal contacts on Common Foreign and Security Policy matters, and will be conducted at least once a year between senior officials of the EU and the US.

This dialogue provides a forum for strategic consultations on areas such as:
• International cyberspace developments1;
• Promotion and protection of human rights online;
• Politico-military and international security issues, such as norms of behaviour in cyberspace, cyber security confidence building measures, and application of the existing international law;
• Cyber security capacity building in third countries.

The EU-US Working Group on Cyber Security and Cybercrime

This working group, created by the EU-US Summit in November 2010, has been taking forward important work in the area of cybersecurity and cybercrime. It is divided into four expert sub-groups that work on (i) cyber incident management, (ii) public-private partnerships (including market access barriers), (iii) awareness raising, and (iv) cybercrime.

The Working Group has fostered close cooperation between the EU and the US on issues of cyber security and cybercrime, with concrete outcomes including the 2011 EU-US Cyber-incident table-top exercise, public-private workshops on industrial control systems and smart grids and on the involvement of intermediaries in awareness raising, the 2012 launch of the Global Alliance against Sexual Abuse Online, the signature of an EU-US joint declaration on making the Internet a better place for children, and the work on enhancing the security of domain names and Internet Protocol addresses. Current priorities include further work on awareness raising, standards for risk management, managing botnet attacks, the promotion of the Budapest Convention (on cybercrime), coordinating positions in international fora and joint guidelines for on-line tracking for commercial purposes.

In addition, the good cooperation between U.S. Law Enforcement and the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) helps to more effectively address cybercrime.

The Global Alliance against Child Sexual Abuse Online

Launched in December 2012 on the basis of a joint initiative by Commissioner Malmström and Attorney General Holder following dialogue in the EU-US Working Group, the Global Alliance is a political initiative under which 53 countries have voluntarily undertaken a number of commitments to strengthen their national framework in order to fight child sexual abuse online, identify, protect and support victims, reduce availability of child pornography, prosecute offenders and raise awareness. The European Commission served as the Secretariat of the Global Alliance for the first two years, and published a report in February 2014 on the commitments made by participating countries and information for policy makers and the general public on trends and threats in this field. The Chair and Secretariat role is now being handed over to the US, which is due to organise a follow-up conference in October/November 2014.

The Information Society Dialogue

The Information Society Dialogue has been set up to allow the EU and US to engage in a broad range of discussions on issues related to information and communication technology, including Internet policy and governance. The dialogue has so far taken place on a roughly annual basis, but is also characterised by intercessional work streams on a wide variety of issues, such as Cloud Computing, Internet governance and eHealth. A number of these issues are also discussed in the Transatlantic Economic Council.

FOR FURTHER DETAILS:
Michael Mann +32 498 999 780 – +32 2 584 9780- Michael.Mann@eeas.europa.eu @EUHighRepSpox
Maja Kocijancic +32 498 984 425 – +32 2 298 65 70 – Maja.Kocijancic@ec.europa.eu @AshtonSpox_Maja
Sebastien Brabant +32 460 75 09 98 – Sebastien.Brabant@ec.europa.eu
Eamonn Prendergast +32 460 75 32 93 – Eamonn.Prendergast@ec.europa.eu

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