EU creates cyber defence team for its institutions

The team comprises IT security experts from seven EU institutions

The institutions that govern the European Union (EU) have set up a team, dubbed the Computer Emergency Response pre-configuration Team (CERT), to help fight the threat of cyber attacks.

The instititions comprise seven distinct bodies, including the European Parliament and the European Council.

CERT is made up of IT security experts from each of the EU institutions.

The EU first committed itself to establishing the team in the Digital Agenda for Europe released last August.

The Digital Agenda also requires EU members to establish individual CERTs of their own by 2012.

Neelie Kroes, vice president of the European Commission for the Digital Agenda, said: "Cyber attacks are a very real and ever-increasing threat. Whether aimed at individual countries, companies or most recently the European Commission, they can paralyse key infrastructure and cause long-term damage.

"Setting up this CERT pre-configuration team is a further demonstration of how seriously the EU institutions take the cyber security threat."

Earlier this year, the EU was forced to bar staff from using its webmail service following a serious and targeted cyber attack.