The EU CSIRTs Network

CERT-FR, as the French National and Governmental CERT, takes part in the European CSIRTs Network, established by the EU “NIS” directive 2016/1148.

What is the EU CSIRTs Network?

Since 2017, under the article 12 of the NIS directive (incorporated into the national law n°2018-133 of 26 February 2018 applying various adaptations of European Union law in the area of cyber security), representatives of EU member states and the CERT-EU gather in the CSIRTs Network, a valuable place for exchanges across members.
Its main goals are to:

• foster information exchange;
• strengthen trust among its members;
• optimize response to cross-border incidents;
• monitor and improve maturity of CSIRTs across the European Union through sharing feedback, tools and trainings;
• provide, through different cooperation modes, a clear situational picture of a vulnerability or an incident of interest for Member States.

The European Commission takes part in the CSIRTs Network as an observer. ENISA ensures the secretariat and actively supports cooperation between CSIRTs.

Procedures

CSIRTs Network’s members meet three times per year in plenary meetings, and exchange on a daily basis via different means of communications, allowing them to share information and notifications about incidents detected and followed within different member states.
The Network is operated in multiple cooperation modes which can be triggered without delay if the situation requires an intensification of information exchange.
In addition, different working groups allow to improve governance, procedures, tools or experience sharing and mutual maturity improvement, in particular through peer review processes.
The chairship of this network follows the presidency of the Council of the EU, three Member States ensuring it for 18 months as a trio.

Composition

The CSIRTs Network currently gathers 39 teams.