Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 1 December 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs

EU Cybersecurity: Discussion (Resumed)

Photo of Ruairi Ó MurchúRuairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I appreciate all that and I will finish by asking a short question.

I imagine that Mr. Lepassaar's answer will be that he foresees that the review will deal with the due diligence that will be required in this field. What sort of structure is needed? What sort of lead operation do we need that would make sure that we covered all of the bases? I get the idea of a framework that respects individual states and their wants, needs and requirements. Obviously one is going to have digital hygiene. That is absolutely necessary and would stop this before it happens, particularly if we consider the ransomware attack. Obviously there is a wider issue. On the defence end, people are in great fear of a cyberattack, which is an almost like a physical attack, and I do not know how one could get collaborative results. Where defence meets disruption, and I have heard it said and I used the term before, everyone needs a counter strike capacity. I do not mean that one engages a huge amount of hackers to attack but more to disrupt in the middle of a chain of attacks. We must make sure that collaboration happens and is useful and, as Mr. Lepassaar said, that it is greater than the sum of all its parts.

There is the wider question of making sure that we have the legislation or policing part. Then we need diplomacy, and even hardline diplomacy. I say that because we are talking, at some stage, of dealing with some of these actors where they are almost subcontractors that have a relationship with certain states that are beyond the borders of the European Union.