EU-LAC Cyber-SHIELD

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Dominican Rep., Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is undergoing rapid digitalisation of its public administrations, financial systems and essential services, which increases its exposure to cyber risks. Added to this are disparities in digital maturity, institutional fragmentation and unequal technical capabilities across countries and sectors.

Whilst several countries have made progress on national strategies, regulatory frameworks and CSIRTs, cooperation remains largely national in scope and lacks structured mechanisms at regional or bi-regional level. This reduces the effectiveness of prevention, detection and response to large-scale or cross-border incidents.

EU-LAC Cyber-SHIELD addresses this gap. It is an EU-funded initiative, implemented by Expertise France and FIAP, as part of the Team Europe Initiative ‘EU-LAC Digital Alliance’ and in line with the Global Gateway strategy.

The cyber-incident detection capabilities of partner countries in Latin America and the Caribbean will be strengthened through the deployment and interconnection of Security Operations Centres (SOCs). The main activities will be:

Deployment of deployable SOCs in pilot countries, based on the CCN’s operational model. These provide immediate monitoring, detection and technical analysis capabilities, even in environments with little existing infrastructure.
Interconnection of the SOCs within a network for the exchange of incident information, modelled on Spain’s National SOC Network, subject to agreement by the partner countries.

Project objectives

Improving cooperation

Improving cooperation between stakeholders and incident response capabilities, thereby strengthening cyber resilience in the Latin American and Caribbean region.

Cyber-incident detection

Strengthen the cyber-incident detection capabilities of partner countries in Latin America and the Caribbean through the deployment and interconnection of COCs (OE1), implemented by FIAP/CCN.

Response capacity

To improve preparedness and response capacity to cyber incidents in Latin America and the Caribbean, in line with EU standards and international best practice (SO2).