The Network and Information Security or NIS2 Directive is an important set of rules in the European Union. It aims to protect network and information systems in all member countries. This directive creates a united strategy for improving cybersecurity and resilience against digital threats. Instead of just suggesting guidelines, it ensures all member states have strong security measures in place.
Let's now look into the NIS2 directive, it's supervision in EU member states and what is supervised. We'll also check out NIS2 penalties for noncompliance and how you can stay compliant (to avoid penalties).
The NIS2 Directive is an updated EU cybersecurity law, replacing the original NIS Directive. NIS2 aims to enhance the overall level of cybersecurity across the EU by setting stricter risk management and reporting obligations for a broader range of public and private entities.
NIS2 stands as a significant evolution in the EU's efforts to bolster cybersecurity resilience. Building upon its predecessor, this directive brings a refined focus, encompassing a wider range of sectors while setting clearer, more robust regulatory expectations. Importantly, NIS2 underscores the increased urgency to protect Europe's critical infrastructure from evolving cyber threats, ensuring that organizations are better equipped to prevent, detect, and respond to incidents.
NIS2 affects a wide range of private and public entities across the EU that provide essential or important services. It significantly expands the scope compared to the original NIS Directive. Most organizations with 250+ employees or €50M+ turnover in the affected sectors will fall under NIS2. However, smaller organizations may also be included if they are high-risk or critical to society.
Under the NIS2 Directive, each country is required to designate a competent authority to oversee and ensure compliance with its provisions. This authority plays a critical role in both supervising and supporting organizations as they navigate the complexities of cybersecurity regulations. Their duties range from conducting audits and risk assessments to providing guidance on best practices.
At the European level, the supervision and coordination of the NIS2 Directive is primarily handled by:
Each EU member state also appoints its own national competent authority (NCA) to supervise and enforce NIS2 locally, but these entities cooperate at the EU level through the above structures.
The NIS2 Directive aims to strengthen the EU’s collective cybersecurity resilience through a balanced combination of proactive and reactive supervisory measures. Unlike its predecessor, NIS2 places greater emphasis on both preventing incidents before they occur and responding effectively when they do.
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NIS2 supervision involves proactive monitoring, audits, incident reporting reviews, and enforcement actions. The goal is to make sure that organizations follow their cybersecurity risk management and incident reporting requirements.
The proactive approach aims to prevent incidents and reduce vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
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Reactive supervision focuses on incident reporting, investigation, and enforcement actions when breaches occur. These can be:
The reactive approach ensures that when incidents do occur, they are handled effectively, documented thoroughly, and lead to improvements.
Additionally, organization must be able to demonstrate compliance to their national supervisory authority upon request—or during audits, inspections, or after an incident. This isn’t just about claiming you’re compliant; it’s about proving it with evidence. Together, these two approaches form a robust framework designed to mitigate risks, enhance incident response capabilities, and drive continuous improvement.
NIS 2 gives 10 million reasons to get compliant.
Supervisory authorities have a range of enforcement actions they can apply to non-compliant organizations. These penalties are designed to ensure meaningful accountability and adherence to cybersecurity standards. Next, let's look into these forms of penalty actions.
These measures can include orders to bring operations into compliance, which may involve implementing specific security measures or undergoing regular audits. Such corrective actions are intended to rectify deficiencies and prevent future breaches. These can be:
Binding orders are direct commands from supervisory authorities that require specific actions to fix compliance failures. Ignoring these orders can lead to more fines or even tougher penalties, like restrictions or bans on business operations.
Administrative fines are the most common type of penalty actions following noncompliance.
Fines for noncompliance can be substantial, Up to €10 million or 2% of global annual turnover, whichever is higher.
Yes, NIS2 can get personal. Unlike previous directives, NIS2 recognizes the importance of individual accountability by allowing authorities to impose temporary bans on executives or other responsible personnel. Authorities may impose temporary bans on specific individuals from performing management or operational roles within their organization. But these bans won't come lighty, as the bans would require a relatively high degree of negligence:
Now that we've gone through how the NIS2 supervision works, and what penalties you can face in case of noncompliance, it would certainly be nice to hear tips how these penalties can be avoided. Here are a few key tips to help you achieve compliance and sustain it in the longer term.
To comply with NIS2 regulations, start by doing a full risk assessment to find possible cybersecurity threats and weaknesses. This means checking your current security and finding out where you need to improve to meet NIS2 standards. Gap analysis can provide insights what measures you are doing now and what needs to be done towards compliance.
Cyberday offers a free, 15-minute assessment tool to assess you NIS2 readiness. If you are new to Cyberday, assess you NIS2 compliance and you can start an extended trial period, and use the results of the evaluation in the product. If you have Cyberday account, you can assess compliance inside the product.
Investing in employee training and awareness programs is crucial for compliance. Organizations should educate their staff on cybersecurity best practices and the specific requirements of NIS2. Regular training sessions can help employees recognize and respond to potential security incidents effectively.
One way to distribute information security guidelines to employees is through ISMS such as Cyberday, where guidelines can be created with case-examples and skill tests, and distributed to employee's personal Guidebook, even directly inside MS Teams.
Documentation helps you show that you meet regulatory standards. By carefully documenting your processes, procedures, and compliance steps, you create a clear record to show during audits or inspections. It's important to keep this documentation up to date so it matches current rules and your organization's operations. These documentations also can prove your compliance upon request.
Regular reviews, such as internal or external audits, help you stay prepared to meet compliance and reduce the risk of penalties for non-compliance. You should carry out internal audits to see how your cybersecurity holds up and spot any areas that aren't up to standard. Bringing in outside experts for an external audit can give you extra confidence.
With the NIS2 Directive being worked on in a flexible ISMS like Cyberday, you can get compliance documentation at the click of a button, easily, with up-to-date information. Internal and external audits are also made easy with an ISMS, as all the information is available in one place.
Developing a robust cybersecurity strategy is essential. This strategy should include clear policies and procedures for incident detection, response, and recovery. Organizations should ensure that these policies are aligned with NIS2 requirements and are regularly updated to address emerging threats.
But the hard part is, legislations such as NIS2 do not offer direct implementation measures. Therefore, voluntary standards such as ISO 27001, which provide measures to achieve compliance and go hand in hand with the NIS2 requirements, are recommended for achieving compliance. ISO 27001 can also provide better documentation options for provable compliance, and with ISO 27001 certification you will also be able to prove your alignment with NIS2 requirements. We did also create a guide for it - and you can download NIS2 ready with ISO 27001 best practices ebook for free.
NIS2 is not just a guideline—it’s law. Proactive compliance is cheaper (and easier) than facing penalties. But if we've managed to scare you about the penalties, let me just say this: The NIS2 directive is designed to be strict but fair, offering organizations the opportunity to remedy issues before punitive measures are applied.
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