NCSC welcomes the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre Governing Board and its network of National Coordination Centres

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) welcomed over 90 delegates from the EU, Norway and Iceland for a day of collaboration and discussion on best practice for governance of the Network and its Working Groups and current and future cybersecurity funding through the Digital Europe Programme at the National Coordination Centres (NCCs) Network meeting earlier this week in Dublin Castle.

This was followed by a two-day meeting of the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC) Governing Board on Thursday 27 June and Friday 28 June. The events were jointly organised by the ECCC and the NCSC.

The NCCs Network mission is to boost research excellence and the competitiveness of the Union in the field of cybersecurity. The meeting included updates from the EU Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) on research and innovation and education activities in the EU, and also allowed NCC members to share updates on activities underway and planned in Member States.

In Ireland, the NCC-IE was established in the NCSC in 2021. Its role includes co-ordinating with industry, academia, research and other stakeholders to develop awareness of, and promote, funding supports available.

This meeting was followed by the 9th meeting of the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC) Governing Board on 27 and 28 June. The ECCC works together with the NCCs to build a strong cyber security community.

Addressing the Governing Board meeting on Thursday, 27 June, Minister of State Smyth highlighted the importance of continued close cooperation and discussions in order to further strengthen ties and cyber resilience.

At the meeting, the board discussed its anti-fraud strategy, its public communications and dissemination strategy and ECCO, the European Cybersecurity Community Support project. The ECCC Governing Board provides strategic orientation and oversees ECCC activities.

ENDS

Notes to the Editor

The European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC)

The ECCC aims to increase Europe’s cybersecurity capacities and competitiveness. Its key functions are:

To provide strategic orientations and oversee the Centre’s activities
To adopt the work programme, annual budget, consolidated annual activity report
To adopt the financial rules, the anti-fraud strategy, rules for the prevention and management of conflicts of interest, communication policy
To set up working groups within the Community
To appoint the Executive Director and the Accounting Officer
To appoint the members of the Strategic Advisory Group

National Coordination Centres (NCCs) Network

The National Coordination Centres (NCCs) Network comprises all EU Member States and Norway and Iceland. The NCCs have common ground due to the many common challenges they face such as Digital Borders, Critical Infrastructure construction and maintenance, maintaining databases of the risks, threats, and vulnerabilities of the national/European critical infrastructure, and the mandate to boost research in this area. They serve to maintain and boost the level of cybersecurity for the European Union and are actively engaged in this mission.

National Cyber Security Coordination and Development Centre for Ireland (NCC-IE)

The National Cyber Security Coordination and Development Centre for Ireland (NCC-IE) was established in the NCSC in 2023 and its role includes:

distributing EU and national funds to industry and societal stakeholders, notably small and medium sized enterprises (SME), with the aim of strengthening the uptake of state-of-the-art cybersecurity solutions
contributing to policy and strategy formulation on cybersecurity funding

National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) was founded in 2011 and is an operational, cyber-security unit within the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications.

The NCSC has three main roles. These are:

To defend the State, including Government and critical infrastructure, against cyber-security risks by monitoring, detecting and responding to cyber-security incidents, including large scale cyber security incident response
To build resilience across the State and society by providing guidance and advice to citizens and businesses on major cyber-security incidents, by applying a series of requirements on vendors, critical infrastructure operators and public bodies
Developing and maintaining strong international relationships in the global cyber-security community for the purposes of information sharing and incident response coordination