Article 30 Voluntary notification of relevant information

A proactive approach to cyber threats is a vital component of cybersecurity risk management that should enable the competent authorities to effectively prevent cyber threats from materialising into incidents that may cause considerable material or non-material damage. For that purpose, the notification of cyber threats is of key importance. To that end, entities are encouraged to report on a voluntary basis cyber threats.

With cyber threats becoming more complex and sophisticated, good detection of such threats and their prevention measures depend to a large extent on regular threat and vulnerability intelligence sharing between entities. Information sharing contributes to an increased awareness of cyber threats, which, in turn, enhances entities’ capacity to prevent such threats from materialising into incidents and enables entities to better contain the effects of incidents and recover more efficiently. In the absence of guidance at Union level, various factors seem to have inhibited such intelligence sharing, in particular uncertainty over the compatibility with competition and liability rules.

Entities should be encouraged and assisted by Member States to collectively leverage their individual knowledge and practical experience at strategic, tactical and operational levels with a view to enhancing their capabilities to adequately prevent, detect, respond to or recover from incidents or to mitigate their impact. It is thus necessary to enable the emergence at Union level of voluntary cybersecurity information-sharing arrangements. To that end, Member States should actively assist and encourage entities, such as those providing cybersecurity services and research, as well as relevant entities not falling within the scope of this Directive, to participate in such cybersecurity information-sharing arrangements. Those arrangements should be established in accordance with the Union competition rules and Union data protection law.

In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Directive, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission to lay down the procedural arrangements necessary for the functioning of the Cooperation Group and the technical and methodological as well as sectoral requirements concerning the cybersecurity risk-management measures, and to further specify the type of information, the format and the procedure of incident, cyber threat and near miss notifications and of significant cyber threat communications, as well as cases in which an incident is to be considered to be significant. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council(²³)Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 February 2011 laying down the rules and general principles concerning mechanisms for control by the Member States of the Commission’s exercise of implementing powers (OJ L 55, 28.2.2011, p. 13)..