Policy Observatory

In July, Austria had said it would offer tenders for an initial 200 million euros as part of plans to invest some of the proceeds from a controversial mobile frequency auction, which is now the subject of a court case, into broadband infrastructure.

A pair of domains operated by The Pirate Bay are at risk of seizure following legal action by Swedish authorities. The man behind December's raid, prosecutor Fredrik Ingblad, says that the domains should be canceled or placed under state control. The domain registry involved has criticized the move.

Originally filed at the District Court of Stockholm back in 2013, the motion targets Punkt SE, the organization responsible for Sweden’s top level .SE domain. Ingblad’s assertion is that since The Pirate Bay is acting illegally, domain names are necessarily part of that site’s ‘crimes’ and should be tackled like any other part of its infrastructure.

Act 181/2014 on cybersecurity came into force on the 1st of January 2015. The law aims at making the country more resilient against cyber threats and attacks on important ICT infrastructures. The system for ensuring cyber security consists of: security measures, reporting of cyber security incidents, preparation of countermeasures, reporting of contact details and monitoring activities of supervising authorities. Both the law and related regulation define critical information infrastructures and important information systems. Operators of such infrastructures and systems, who can be either government as well as private organisations, must now comply with sets of rules and obligations. The law also introduces the term of “state of cyber emergency”.  The main control function will be performed by the Czech National Security Authority via Government CERT, which was established in 2011.