ECSM Through the Years
Background
In 2011, the EU Agency for Cybersecurity was asked to assess the feasibility and explore various options on how a European Cybersecurity Month could become an effective instrument to raising awareness about cybersecurity challenges. The Agency was involved in assessing the establishment and organisation of ECSM - 2011 Feasibility study.
In 2012, for the first time, the European Cybersecurity Month took place as a pilot project across Europe. As pilot countries the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom participated in various activities and events throughout the month of October to raise awareness of cybersecurity. This project was supported by the EU Agency for Cybersecurity and by the European Commission.
In 2013, the Cybersecurity Strategy of the European Union called on EU Member States to organise a yearly cybersecurity month with the support of the Agency and the involvement of the private sector, with the goal to raise awareness among end users.
From 2013 the ECSM has taken place every year in the month of October, proposing each year a focus on different topics related to cybersecurity. Results shows that each new ECSM campaign is out performing previous years, especially in terms of activities organised and outreach of people via Social Media.
In 2019, this awareness campaign has been incorporated in the implementing actions of the Cybersecurity Act (CSA) that mandate ENISA to organise regular outreach campaigns in cooperation with Member States, Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies.
ECSM Through the Years
| 2021 |
in 2021, 73% of Member States surveyed, said that their campaigns reduced cyber incidents. | 2021 Deployment report |
| 2020 | Number of activities decreased by 20 % from 525 to 419. Number of users who saw ECSM content increased from 2.7 million to 9.8 million. Number of mentions increased by 265 % from 1 928 to 7 046. Number of Twitter followers increased by 20 % from 20 000 to 24 000. Number of Member States collaborating with ENISA during the campaign increased by 22 % (six more EU Member States and 1 EFTA state actively took part in the campaign, rather than just registering activities). Percentage of Member States that gave the ECSM a ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ rating increased to 78 %. |
2020 Deployment Report |
| 2019 | A total of 525 activities took place across 36 countries. | 2019 Deployment Report |
| 2018 | A total of 567 activities took place across 35 countries. | 2018 Deployment Report |
| 2017 | A total of 532 activities took place across 37 countries. | 2017 Deployment Report |
| 2016 | A total of 455 activities took place across 32 countries. | 2016 Deployment Report |
| 2015 | A total of 242 activities took place across 32 countries. | 2015 Deployment Report |
| 2014 | A total of 184 activities took place across 30 countries. | 2014 Depolyment Report |
| 2013 | ENISA worked to developed further the European Cyber-Security Month. The approach was to widen the number of participating Member States to ensure sufficient focus on a number of key themes and to profile the event as a joint EU campaign with global outreach. | 2013 Depolyment Report |
| 2012 | The ECSM campaign took place as a pilot project across Europe. More on the launch year can be found in the following report. | Synthesis of the results of the first ECSM |
| 2011 | The EU Agency for Cybersecurity assessed the establishment and organisation of a European Cybersecurity Month campaign. | 2011 Feasibility study |
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