From: New Europe
By Antanas Guoga, Member of the European Parliament (Lithuania, ALDE)
Cyber security is becoming inevitable topic of discussions in a rapidly evolving digital era. The latest WannaCry cyber-attack has once again taught us, how costly such form of a crime can be. Moreover, these types of incidents know no national boundaries, affect globally and digitally. Have we done enough to brace ourselves against such attacks? Are there enough awareness and preventive tools? It is our wake-up call; hence we must act now and fast.
We have managed to convince EU Member States to accept a mandatory cooperation mechanisms on cyber-security. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) I followed closely and the Network and Information Security Directive (NIS) I was directly involved in, are in the implementation stage. However, cybersecurity policy in the EU should not begin and end with these legislative acts. It is about time to focus on a strong cooperation between EU governments and seriously consider the idea of a cyber-defence resilience. Moreover, transparency and ongoing implementation of the directive should ensure to improve the ability of the Member States to prevent, avoid and/or ease the response to cyber-attacks. We must take this threat seriously at Governmental and individual level.
Stimulating awareness
According to a Cyber-Risk Survey[1] (2016), just 31% of organisations have a full and comprehensive understanding of the present cyber risk. This is surprisingly little. The example of the Wannacry attack shows that these cyber-attacks do not respect national borders. It infected computers in over 150 countries. The security of a technological devices itself does not make it immune to attacks and it remains vulnerable through its interconnectedness with other global networks. Hence, we must think globally. I argue that it is critical for the governments and companies around the world to not only see the opportunities, but also calculate the risk inherent to our digital age.
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