Governments and businesses must do more to improve IT security if the European Union (EU) is to achieve its goal of becoming the world’s leading knowledge economy by 2010.

Andrea Pirotti, executive director of the EU’s European Network Information Security Agency (Enisa), says member states and online businesses must work harder to assure users that the internet is a safe place to transact.

If this does not happen, the EU could struggle to achieve the targets set out in the 2010 Lisbon Agenda, affecting the adoption of egovernment services, payments and ecommerce, he says.

‘We need to push things forward so as to react to the risks,’ Pirotti told Computing.

Pirotti’s comments come shortly after Viviane Reding, information commissioner at the European Commission, warned that IT security investment by member states and business is alarmingly low (Computing, 8 June).

Pirotti says conflicting budgetary pressures are leading to organisations under-investing in IT security, but says this is a false economy because the damage and loss of reputation caused by security breaches is costlier.

‘Europe is squeezed between two economic giants – the US and Asia – and they are running much faster than us,’ he said.

‘We need to make sure that information systems are protected so that consumers and companies use the internet for business.’

Greater education and EU sharing of security best practice could also rebuild trust in the internet and ensure that new member states do not suffer the same teething problems that the UK has experienced in the past, says Simon Perry, a member of Enisa’s Permanent Stakeholders’ Group.

‘The public sector had very ambitious plans for web services and joined-up government, but because of a number of fears and IT errors, there is now a problem that people don’t trust them,’ said Perry, also vice president of security strategy at CA.

CBI head of ebusiness Jeremy Beale said: ‘The question with Enisa is whether it will marshal the level of input that it needs.’

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