Titled “Critical Information Infrastructure Identification: Policy, Practice and Regional Cooperation”, the high-level session connected perspectives on national and regional approaches, operational challenges and opportunities for regional cooperation on how countries identify critical information infrastructure, compared approaches and explored regulatory and operational considerations.  

The session featured senior national representatives from the European Union and ASEAN countries: Liisa-Ly Pakosta (Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs of Estonia), Allan S. Cabanlong (ASEAN Regional Director at the Regional Cyber Advisors Program at CyberCX), Lukáš Kintr (Director of the National Cyber and Information Security Agency of the Czech Republic), Mai Kraft (Director of National Cyber Security Centre NCSC-EE, Estonian Information System Authority), Hans de Vries (Chief Cybersecurity and Operational Officer of ENISA), Mohamad Azad Zaki Haji Mohd Tahir (Chief Information Security Officer at Cyber Security Brunei), Dana Baschova (Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Singapore). Moderated by Pavel Mraz from the United Nations, the panellists and speakers explored opportunities for exchanging practices, support cyber capacity building and strengthening public-private cooperation. The exchanges provided a valuable basis for identifying areas of common interest and cooperation avenues in addressing increasingly interconnected cybersecurity challenges.  

Main Take-aways 

The discussion highlighted the importance of moving beyond policy and regulation towards effective implementation, coordination and leadership. Speakers pointed to the need for a common baseline and simpler, more harmonised approaches to critical infrastructure protection, while recognising that national differences must be accommodated.  

• Resilience also requires regular reviews of regulatory frameworks as risks evolve, and strong leadership to ensure awareness, accountability and organisational buy-in.  

• Public-private cooperation emerged as another key priority: while the private sector is willing to share expertise and information, governments need to take the initiative in building trusted relationships, creating platforms for dialogue and ensuring that confidence in information-sharing arrangements is maintained.Identifying critical infrastructure is a crucial building block for strengthening resilience. It provides the basis for understanding dependencies, prioritising protection, building trust between governments and operators, and translating policy and designation into meaningful action.  

While national contexts and approaches may differ, many challenges are shared. Closer cooperation between EU and ASEAN offers valuable opportunities to learn from each other’s experience and turn common priorities into practical steps towards more resilient critical infrastructure. 

Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/eucybernet/albums/72177720336143696