Stress-testing Europe's critical infrastructure

Opinion is currently divided over whether the first pan-European test centering on the protection of critical national infrastructure is likely to lead to the introduction of new legislation in the area. Europe's first test of whether it could cope with a massive cyber-attack generated some useful lessons. The aim was to understand how well participating member states could collaborate to counter 320 simulated attempts by hackers to paralyse the Internet. However, the exercise also raised questions over whether more legislation might be required to ensure that organisations in both the public and private sector are able to co-operate more effectively. And it highlighted the need for the private sector – not involved in the exercise – to get involved directly in national cyber-security, as Cath Everett discovers.