Politicians call for greater standardisation in IT

Italian politician wants more EC input in IT standardisation

In an address to delegates at the Information Security Solutions Europe (ISSE) event today, the Italian Minister of Communications, Paolo Gentiloni, urged the European Commission to regulate in matters of “standardisation, interoperability and security certification” to create a universal minimum standard for security that all member states can benefit from.
In particular, he praised the ISO 15408 standard that enables comparability between different security products and systems.

“Italy is contributing to international standardisation bodies [which helps to] spread in the internal market the consciousness of the importance of effectively using the tools offered by certification,” he explained. “On all these issues, however, it would be worth achieving a common position within the European Community.”

Gentiloni also warned that IP-based applications such as IP TV and VoIP need “new standards and models in order to guarantee communication security”.

The European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding, acknowledged in her keynote the importance of diversity in technology products as a means of reducing the risk to enterprises of depending on one type of technology.

She added that the Commission “expects the private sector to be proactive in areas [such as] usability and interoperability”.