News item | 08-04-2022 | 15:15
The government wants to make the Dutch business community more digitally resilient. To this end, the government will share specific information about cyber threats, vulnerabilities and incidents with individual companies in the Netherlands. The Council of Ministers has approved the bill for the promotion of digital resilience in companies from Minister Adriaansens of Economic Affairs and Climate (EZK) to organize this information and advisory task.
Minister Adriaansens: “In the first instance, companies are themselves responsible for digital security. But the consequences of cyber incidents can be very serious. It can lead to empty supermarket shelves or industrial production to come to a standstill. That is why I want to be able to inform and advise Dutch companies more actively and specifically about current digital threats or incidents, so that they can act faster.”
Informing and advising non-vital businesses about cyber vulnerabilities
The bill makes it possible not only to provide vital companies (including financial institutions, energy suppliers, telecom providers), but also non-vital businesses with targeted information and advice about vulnerabilities, threats and incidents. A second task is to stimulate the development of partnerships between companies in the field of digital resilience. In practice, the Digital Trust Center (DTC) from the Ministry of Economic Affairs will carry out this.
The DTC and the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) are already working closely together to increase digital resilience. For example, the NCSC is and remains responsible for sharing threat and incident information about network and information systems with vital companies and parts of the national government. Partly based on information from the NCSC, the DTC offers non-vital businesses (2 million companies) information and advice about cybersecurity and encourages mutual cooperation.
Increased government commitment to digital resilience
This move by the government fits in with a broader and active commitment by the national government to make the business community more digitally resilient. In the run-up to this legislation, the DTC already started publishing information known to the government about serious digital threats last year. In addition, there is a pilot to enable targeted exchange of threat information with 57 companies that have registered in advance. They share relevant information about their network and information systems with the DTC. This is then continuously compared with the threat information known to the DTC.
The Council of Ministers has agreed to send the bill to the Council of State for advice. The text of the bill and the advice of the Council of State will be made public when it is submitted to the House of Representatives.