other partners.13 In 2020, Czech Republic representatives concentrated at EU level mainly on negotiations in the areas of the regulation on competence centres, the agenda of cyber security certification, the Cyber Diplomacy Toolbox application,14 the launching of the CyCLONe network,15 sounding talks on revising the NIS Directive16 and concluding discussions about the 5G EU Toolbox17 and its subsequent implementation. The Open Working Group within the UN continued with its activities, in which both the NÚKIB and the MFA actively participate. The Prague Proposals adopted in 2019 became the basis for concluding of bilateral agreements in the 5G networks security field for many countries. Consequently, they are explicitly stated in the bilateral declarations on the 5G infrastructure security which were concluded, for example, between the USA and Estonia, Poland, Romania, Kosovo, Slovenia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Slovakia. prague �g security conference ���� and presentation of the prague �g security repository the new eu cyber security strategyxxiii and proposal for a directive to replace the nis directivexxiv In September 2020, the NÚKIB, the Office of the Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs organ­ ised the 2nd two-day Prague 5G Security Conference, a leading international forum for discussion of the risks associated with the building of 5G infrastructure. Similarly to last year, the conference was held under the auspices of Andrej Babiš, the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic. Although the conference was virtual for the first time due to the COVID-19 situation, more than 50 speakers from Europe, the USA, South Korea, Israel, Australia, India, and other countries spoke at it. The end of 2020 brought a new cyber ‘package’ pre­ pared by the European Union with the assistance of the Czech Republic, among others. Apart from the release and gradual implementation of the 5G EU Toolboxxxv and the conclusion of the discussions about the Regulation on the Cyber Security Competence Centre,18 the prepara­ tion of such fundamental documents with actual impact illustrates the importance of the close cooperation estab­ lished by the Czech Republic within the European Union. The main outcome of the 2nd conference was the presentation and launching of the Prague 5G Security Repository, a virtual library intended for sharing legislative, strategic, and other tools which the countries adopted in the area of 5G network security over the past year. Hence this year’s conference followed on from the release of the Prague Proposals (a set of recommendations and principles countries should take into consideration when building their 5G infrastructure) of the year before. The 3rd Prague 5G Security Conference is scheduled for autumn 2021. A key theme of the conference will be 5G infrastructure security in the context of future and 14 15 16 17 18 emerging technologies, including the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence. The new EU Cyber Security Strategy puts great emphasis on the protection of critical infrastructure, draws atten­ tion to international security and stability risks resulting from geopolitical competition between countries and hybrid threats, and highlights the importance of cyber security as the crucial aspect in people’s confidence in innovations and automation. Greater harmonisation of legal regulations and the approach of Member States to cyber security are the subject matter of the proposal of the European Commission to replace the NIS Directive. The new directive should adapt the coordinated detection of vulnerabilities, expand the sectors of obliged entities, unify methods for the identification of obliged entities, and establish new obligations in incident reporting. In July 2020, the European Union first implemented the sanction mechanism which is a part of the Cyber Diplomacy Toolbox. Sanctions were imposed on two citizens of the PRC, four citizens of the Russian Federation, and three organisations from the PRC, Russia and the DPRK.xxi This was a punishment by the EU for the Cloud Hopper cyberespionage campaign performed by the Chinese APT10 group detected in April 2017, the attacks on the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (2018), the NotPetya cyberattack (2017) ascribed to Russia, and finally for the WannaCry ransomware attack ascribed to the DPRK. In October 2020, sanctions were imposed on another two citizens and one organisation from the Russian Federation.xxii Identifying individuals and organisations from the respective countries does not imply any official attribution of the attacks by the EU, even though the two Russian entities were organisational units of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation GRU (also GU). The identified physical and legal persons are prohibited from entering the EU, and their funds have been frozen. CyCLONe is a network of liaison organisations for dealing with cyber crises. The official name is the Directive on Security of Network and Information Systems. The official name is the EU Toolbox on 5G Cybersecurity. Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the European Cybersecurity Industrial, Technology and Research Competence Centre and the Network of National Coordination Centres. Measures 32