Building The EU-wide Horizontal Defence Shield In ICT Supply Chains

Introduction

This week, the EU Member States approved the conclusions of the Council of the EU to strengthen the overall resilience and (cyber)security of ICT supply chains. The security of ICT supply chains is a key element of ensuring nation-wide cybersecurity. Ensuring the safety of ICT products and services from the source would greatly help reducing vulnerabilities at consumer, company and providers' levels. This urgent call for action is driven by the current geopolitical circumstances, the damaging nature of supply chain attacks and the ever-increasing dependence of our society on digital technologies. The EU Member States must work towards avoiding situations of unwanted strategic external dependencies in relation to ICT products and services similar to the EU energy market's dependency on Russian fossil fuels and draw conclusions from disruptions in supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemics.