Fostering Cyber Resilience for SMEs
A hybrid event "Fostering Cyber Resilience for SMEs", organized by DIGITAL SME and partners, took place in mid-February –Focus of this year's meeting: The impact of the Cyber Resilience Act and the future of the European cybersecurity market for SMEs.
The focus on the Cyber Resilience Act and the future of the European cybersecurity market for SMEs was discussed in this year’s meeting by a total of six speakers – consisting of SME representatives and experts. Thereby, different practical experiences and individual perspectives came together, which enriched the debate to a high degree. Starting point of the debate was a presentation on the Cyber Resilience Act given by Maika Föhrenbach, Policy Officer, Cyber Security & Digital Privacy Policy Unit.
Fostering and guaranteeing security in SMEs is fundamental – if a digital resilience as well as adaptability is not present, the smallest crisis can determine a company's growth and survival, regardless of its size. Thus, it is of great significance to take a glance at the Cyber Resilient Act.
“The Cyber Resilience Act has been proposed on the 15th of September […] the key goal is […] to fulfill […] the vulnerabilities in products and to reduce these vulnerabilities […] to mitigate whenever they appear and present a risk to hardware and software products […] we face an increasing amount of cyber security attacks and to a large extent of cyber security attacks actually exploit vulnerabilities in products.” so Maika Föhrenbach. Also, a report by the European Union Agency for Cyber Security (ENISA), as part of the presentation and reinforcing Föhrenbach's assertion, clearly showed that the level of security against cyberattacks in SMEs is not even close to satisfactory: 80 percent of SMEs surveyed stated that a cybersecurity problem would have a serious impact on their business, while 57 percent confirmed that they could be threatened with bankruptcy.
The key to enhanced cybersecurity
The Cyber Resilience Act is a solution approach for SMEs to fully ensure the cybersecurity within companies – it implements a set of fundamental cybersecurity requirements for placing products with digital elements on the European market. Furthermore, it will apply to the vast majority of networked devices and will have a significant impact on manufacturers as well as users.
At present, the Cyber Resilience Act has entered a transitional period which serves to fully prepare the standardization system. A standardization mandate will be issued by 2025, while the publication of harmonized standards according to the published schedule will be possible two years later.
If you're interested in the meeting content and would like to get some more insight into the Cyber Resilience Act – follow the link below and take a look at the entire discussion with ease:
