What is NIS2?

NIS2 is the successor to the original 2016 Network and Information Security Directive, widened substantially because the first version left too many important operators out of scope and was applied unevenly across member states. By broadening the sectors covered and tightening the baseline, the directive tries to raise the cybersecurity floor for the services European society depends on, from power and water to banking and digital infrastructure, rather than leaving it to each country's discretion.

A notable feature is that accountability reaches the management body, meaning senior leaders can be held responsible for the organization's cyber-risk posture rather than delegating it entirely to a technical team. In practice the risk-management measures the directive demands include secure configuration and monitoring of systems, so continuous evidence that infrastructure is hardened and kept that way supports the technical portion of what an in-scope entity must demonstrate.