share information; from the business community to
public authorities and from individual citizens to
cybersecurity professionals.
OBJECTIVES
• Public authorities and businesses are capable of
responding appropriately to digital threats and
attacks. To do this, they implement the necessary
(preventative) measures and they have the basics in
order.
• The Netherlands is prepared for large-scale cyber
incidents which pose a threat to national security.
• Organisations of vital importance to national security
have a better understanding of digital threats and
attacks and are capable of detecting attacks that
threaten themselves and national security.
• A nationwide network of cybersecurity partnerships
will be created within which information about
cybersecurity can be shared between public and
private parties more widely, efficiently and effectively.
The aim of this nationwide network is to strengthen
the capabilities of public and private parties.
• The legal instruments for effective action in the digital
domain remain in order and are kept up to date in
light of the threat and technological developments.
MEASURES
o The incident response capabilities of, amongst others,
the intelligence and security services, Defence
Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), the
National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) and
Rijkswaterstaat (Directorate-General for Public Works
and Water Management) are being enhanced to be
able to deal with ICT breaches that threaten national
security. In addition, the creation of more private
sector-wide computer crisis teams, such as Z-CERT
(for the care sector) and I-CERT (for the insurance
sector) is encouraged.
o The critical processes in our society demand extra
protection and accelerated recovery in the event of
failure or damage. It is therefore important that these
organisations ensure that they have an appropriate
response capacity or that they have agreement in
place for this with a trusted third party. To this end,
the development of a certification system for
cybersecurity service providers, from whom secure
o
o
o
o
o
o
services can be acquired, will be explored with private
parties.1
The Netherlands must be prepared for large-scale
cyber incidents that threaten national security. The
National Crisis Plan for ICT (Nationaal Crisisplan ICT) will
be being updated. In addition, an integrated ICT
emergency exercise policy will be formulated. It will
include arrangements between government bodies
and private organisations on a joint exercise agenda
and the available capabilities of the parties involved
for this.
The capabilities of the intelligence and security
services, DefCERT and the NCSC to gain insight into
threats and digital attacks, to detect them, disrupt
them and increase resilience will be improved
structurally. To ensure this, the government has
allocated additional funding in recent years and in the
coalition agreement. The National Detection Network
[Nationaal Detectie Netwerk, NDN] will be further
enhanced to create a future proof network.
Situational awareness at the national level will be
enhanced by the creation of a cooperation platform2
with the goal to offer more information and a swifter
perspective for action with relevant organisations
within the legal frameworks. When doing so,
attention should also be paid to cybersecurity
requirements. Recipients need to have a certain level
of maturity to enable information sharing.
Under NCTV coordination, round table discussions are
organised in which the nationwide network of
cybersecurity partnerships can be developed. This will
build on the experiences from existing public and
private cybersecurity partnerships.
The National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) and the
Digital Trust Centre3 (DTC) will encourage – and
support where necessary – the creation and further
development of cybersecurity partnerships for public
authorities, the business community and civil society
organisations. This will also include the creation of a
set of basic security measures for the business
community and civil society organisations.
Legislation aimed at protecting national security will
be reviewed to what extent it provides satisfactory
possibilities to promote security in the digital domain,
whilst retaining fundamental values and privacy.
1
Please also see the objectives and measures on pages 27-28.
2
The possibilities for developing this cooperation platform, with which parties and the form it should take will be explored further.
3
Letter to Parliament ‘Setting up the Digital Trust Centre’, 23 September 2017.
20 | National Cyber Security Agenda A cyber secure Netherlands