Starting October 2024, the NIS2 Directive will require EU member state legislators to legally implement mandatory security measures and reporting obligations for many companies and organizations in 18 critical sectors – including many that were not previously affected. In comparison to the previous NIS Directive, NIS2 expands the affected parties as well as the obligations and official supervision. The CER Directive (CER = Critical Entities Resilience) obliges member states to identify critical facilities and strengthen their physical resilience to threats such as natural hazards, terrorist attacks or sabotage. The human factor is now the most prominent gateway for attackers on companies (e.g. through social engineering or phishing).
ELITE 2.0 is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection as part of the “IT Security in the Economy” initiative and is being carried out by the Fraunhofer Institutes FOKUS and IAO. The Cybersecurity Transfer Office is the central project of the initiative. The initiative relies on a large portfolio of associated partners for the broad dissemination of its project results. These include the DIHK, the BSKI, the BIGS, the BVMW, the Digital Agency Berlin and the Alliance for Security in Business, among many others.