An EU-wide cyber exercise involving about 5,000 experts has tested how Europe would respond to attacks on critical transport infrastructure such as rail and maritime networks.
The two-day exercise, held on 10 and 11 June, was organised by the EU Agency for Cybersecurity and was called Cyber Europe 2026, the European Commission informed on Thursday.
The simulated scenario involved a cyber attack on Europe’s rail and maritime networks that caused severe operational disruption and escalated into a wider cybersecurity crisis.
Participants included cybersecurity specialists from the public and private sectors, policymakers, EU institutions, industry and partner countries including the United Kingdom, Norway, Switzerland and Ukraine.
Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy, said attacks on ports or railways could disrupt trade, military mobility and crisis response, and that cyber threats can cross borders quickly.
First EU-wide test of the 2025 Cyber Blueprint
Cyber Europe 2026 was also the first EU-wide test of the 2025 EU Cyber Blueprint, a framework that sets out roles and responsibilities during a cyber crisis, the Commission said.
The exercise tested the EU’s Cybersecurity Reserve — a resource created under the Cyber Solidarity Act to help support responses to cybersecurity incidents.
