Higher education: NCTV, the Minstery of Education, Culture and Science, and the NWO are tasked with tracking higher education in the Netherlands, comparing degree programmes and assessing the skills of recent graduates entering the labour market. The National Cyber Security Agenda calls upon these policymakers to analyse the differences between the curricula (supply) and requirements for well-trained personnel (demand). It also highlights the need to pay greater attention to ensuring there is sufficient teaching capacity in all relevant disciplines.  

Schoolchildren: Digital literacy for primary and secondary education is part of the national curriculum with an educational review becoming law in 2019. However, the risks facing young children in the digital world means that the educational sector needs to continuously renew and anticipate developments in an evolving landscape. Therefore the Agenda pushes forward such revisions through cooperation between teachers, pupils, parents, educational institutions and the professional field. 

The Dutch Agenda for Cyber Security implements three measures with the overarching goal of ensuring that the Netherlands conducts high-quality cybersecurity research, building on its long-term knowledge development programme with the involvement of the academic community while making sure there are enough academics available to acquire an independent knowledge position in cybersecurity. A complementary goal is ensuring that citizens and businesses understand the importance of tackling cyber threats and building resilience to cybercrime. 

The three measures are:

• Structural investments in fundamental and applied research based on a multi-year public-private approach and with the aim of boosting high-quality cybersecurity knowledge development. Alongside this measure, there will be an investigation into how various initiatives, programmes and instruments on cybersecurity can be better aligned with each other. These steps will take on board the Verhoeven/Rutte motion of 2017 (Source: Hague Security Delta, 19 December 2017). Financial incentives will be the main trigger for implementing this measure.
• Digital skills, media literacy and cybersecurity are explicit focus areas in the integral review of the primary and secondary school education curriculum supported by the national Knowledge Net (Kennisnet) funded by the Ministery of Education, Culture and Science.
• The government will encourage the business and civil society organisations to further develop the digital skills of employees and citizens while ensuring continuity and cohesion between communications campaigns with a view to maximising their impacts and taking into account the latest insights into behavioural sciences. 

The Dutch National Cyber Security Centre has published a Research Agenda 2019-2022 with a focus on crisis management, risk management, strategic and social aspects of cybersecurity and new technologies with the aim of implementing related measures in the national cybersecurity strategy. 

NCSRA-II implements the objective on ensuring there is sufficient cybersecurity knowledge and expertise alongside a boost to investments in IT innovations. 

NCSRA-III (2018) is focused on the research callenges in cybersecurity and privacy based on five pillars: Design, Defence, Attacks, Governance and Privacy. 

A key target of the Dutch 2018 cybersecurity strategy is having an integrated and strong public-private approach to cybersecurity with the NCTV taking the lead in promoting and ensuring the improvement of cybsecurity through a concerted effort by public authorities, the business community, science and civil society. Close public-private cooperation is the key to successfully designing, developing and assessing the approach taken, closely following the evolving threat landscape and linking effective market initiatives to the wider picture of the national strategy, such as including cybersecurity into the Corporate Governance Code, thereby making it subject to audit and review. 

The Agenda stipulates the following:

• Private sector: Making more concerted and cohesive efforts for the enhancement of cybersecurity.
• Public sector: Stepping up efforts in protecting essential digital services from failure, sabotage and disruption. This entails not only optimising digital services and guaranteeing high-quality services but also investing in information and cyber security and prioritising the availability and continuity of services. 
• Government: Having a strong security posture and ensuring resilience to cyber-attacks under the coordination of the Board for Digital Government, including actions to be undertaken at inter-governmental level. 

Specific objectives are aimed at ensuring:

• Government has a coordinating role in the integrated approach to strengthening cybersecurity in the Netherlands.
• Dutch businesses, citizens and government organisations implement their respective responsibilities, rights and obligations with regard to cybersecurity. 
• Coherent package of measures is in place to enhance the security of digital government in terms of the basic digital infrastructure, further standardising and harmonising frameworks of norms and information security, including the creation and implementation of a Government Information Security Baseline. Efforts must also be taken to reduce administrative burdens on municipalities for information security, including the bundling of audits and assessments in a single chain of accountability. 
• Information and cyber security are embedded in the Digital Government Act.

Measures:

• Ensuring the strenghtened coordination of the integrated approach under the responsibility of NCTV. 
• Setting up a cybersecurity alliance committed to ensuring that public and private parties implement the measures of the national agenda. 
• Monitoring the approach adopted under NCTV coordination and in cooperation with all parties involved and recalibrating actions based on technological and social developments. The first assessment of the Agenda measures will take place in 2021. 
• Reinforcing cooperation between public authorities and the business community by creating a nationwide network of cybersecurity partnerships, where big companies will support small firms in increasing their knowledge. 
• Implementing a coherent package of measures for information and cyber security in public administration as part of the broad agenda for digital government and coordinated through a dedicated forum.

The Dutch security cluster The Hague Security Delta is a network of businesses, governments and knowledge institutions, that work together on knowledge development and innovation in security. Their common goal is making the world more secure with more business activity and more jobs. The cluster is supported by the HSD Office with the goals of: 

• Accelerating collaboration in the Dutch security cluster, connecting businesses, governments and knowledge institutions and facilitating knowledge sharing between them.
• Adopting a triple-helix cooperation approach: The Value of Cooperation - Innovation in Dutch Security in Perspective. 
• Seting up innovation programmes that are open to all who are interested. 

In June 2016, the HSD took the first steps in connecting to security regions in France, Denmark, Finland and Germany, where the aim is to also create cross-sector co-operation. The other cyber security clusters joining HDS are: France: Aix-en-Provence, SAFE Cluster | Denmark: Karup, CenSec | Finland: Tampere Region, Safety and Security Cluster | Germany: Karlsruhe, KIT | Germany: Munich, Security Cluster.

The ECP (Dutch) is a public-private platform for promoting the use of information and communications technology in the Netherlands. 

The Netherlands has also signed a memorandum of understanding on cyber security with Luxembourg and Belgium, including co-operation and expertise-sharing on the development of public-private partnerships.

January 2021.

The information contained here is based on desk research carried out by CYBERWISER.eu, including the ENISA interactive maps on national strategies and educational courses. 

• Response to threats and incidents.
• Perception and action prospects.
• Improving crisis management
• Cyber security collaboration platform. 

The Netherlands has a sophisticated and mature legal and policy framework for cyber security, which includes the National Cyber Security Strategy and renews its cyber security framework every two years.

The Netherlands National Cyber Security Centre works as an expanded CERT dealing with all cybersecurity related procedures and practices in a centralised manner. The centre also actively participates in the work of the Information Sharing and Analysis Centres (ISACs) for sectors involved with critical infrastructure.

January 2021. 

The information contained here is the result of desk research carried out by CYBERWISER.eu.