Unauthorised Access: Physical Penetration Testing For IT Security Teams

C.1.1. European Network and Information Security Agency

The mission of the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) is to act as a hub, or clearing house, for information relevant to the information security of the European Union. It came into being following the adoption of Regulation (EC) No 460/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council on 10 March 2004. Their website (at www.enisa.europa.eu.) states:

As the Agency's in-house expertise grows, ENISA is helping the European Commission, the Member States and the business community to address, respond and especially to prevent Network and Information Security problems.

Except they're not. Despite existing for over four years, ENISA have yet actually to do anything other than set up a website. Virtually no one in the information security community (let alone anyone else) has heard of them. This may puzzle US readers but, I assure you, it is perfectly normal in Europe. That being said ENISA was founded on the basis of a number of assumptions, the following being the most important:

• Communication networks and information systems have become an essential factor in economic and societal development. Computing and networking are now becoming ubiquitous utilities in the same way as electricity or water supply already are. The security of communication networks and information systems, in particular their availability, is therefore of increasing concern to society not the least because of the possibility of problems ...