European Commission emphasises importance of working together to support cyber defence

Differences in cyber preparedness between EU members could put cross-region systems at risk

Union-wide cooperation is important to improve cyber security throughout Europe, the head of the European Commission's Cybersecurity Technology and Capacity Building unit said at the EEMA ISSE 2018 cyber security conference in Brussels this week.

Miguel Gonzalez-Sancho told delegates that "the whole digital economy is in danger" if cyber security and data protection are not addressed.

Differences in cyber readiness between European countries means that attackers can infiltrate "the whole system" by going after one weak link, Gonzalez-Sancho said.

"The threat is global, which means everyone is affected," he said. "But there are differences in terms of preparedness, and attackers will always go for the weakest link, putting the whole system at risk… There is a need to increase resilience to cyber threats and incident response and to do it in a coordinated way."

Because of this, the Commission is investigating ways to ensure strong cyber resilience and response, as well as strengthening international cooperation.

The EU is funding research and development for capacity solutions to support cyber security policies through the Horizon 2020 programme, and for cross-border cooperation through the Connecting Europe Facility programme.

"For the future, the Commission has made proposals for the next budget cycle to step up the funding support in cyber security for research and innovation through the Horizon Europe programme and the new Digital Europe programme, with an overall budget of €9.2 billion," said Gonzalez-Sancho.

Digital Europe is intended to support the procurement of ‘advanced' equipment, tools and data infrastructure; support the best use of European knowledge and skills; ensure the deployment of new solutions across the economy; and reinforce the capabilities of network and information systems.

Despite these efforts, Gonzalez-Sancho warned that European cyber security will remain a risk if members do not work together.

IT security failings are, increasingly, costing CIOs and CEOs their jobs. With business utterly dependent on IT, it's not enough for senior executives to dismiss security as ‘techie stuff'. At Computing's Enterprise Security & Risk Management Live event, hear from the National Crime Agency, ex-hackers and big-business CISOs to learn about how they are tackling cyber security. For more information, check out the dedicated event website. Attendance is FREE to IT leaders and senior IT pros.