[BreachExchange] Cybersecurity and its impact on business

[Audrey McNeil]

http://in-cyprus.com/cybersecurity-and-its-impact-on-business/

Cybersecurity incidents can cause major damage to European businesses and
the economy at large. Indeed, theft of commercial trade secrets and
business information, personal data breaches, disruption of services and of
infrastructure result in economic losses of hundreds of billions of euros
each year.

According to a recent survey, at least 80% of European companies have
experienced at least one cybersecurity incident over the last year and the
number of security incidents across all industries worldwide rose by 38% in
2015. This damages European companies, whether they are big or small, and
threats to undermine trust in the digital economy.

Since the adoption of the EU Cybersecurity Strategy in 2013, the European
Commission has stepped up its efforts to better protect Europeans online.

It has adopted a set of legislative proposals, in particular on network and
information security, earmarked more than €600 million of EU investment for
research and innovation in cybersecurity projects during the 2014-2020
period, and fostered cybersecurity cooperation within the EU and with
partners on the global stage.

But more work is needed to address the increasing number and complexity of
cyber-threats. This is why the Commission has proposed a series of measures
to reinforce cooperation in order to secure Europe’s digital economy and
society and to help develop innovative and secure technologies, products
and services throughout the EU.

The measures presented include the launch of the first European public
private partnership on cybersecurity. The EU will invest €450 million in
this partnership, under its research and innovation programme Horizon 2020.
Cybersecurity market players are expected to invest three times more, thus
triggering €1.8 billion of investment by 2020.

This partnership will also include members from national, regional and
local public administrations, research centres and academia.

The aim of the partnership is to foster cooperation at early stages of the
research and innovation process and to build cybersecurity solutions for
various sectors, such as energy, health, transport and finance.

The Commission has also set out different measures to tackle the
fragmentation of the EU cybersecurity market.

Currently an information communication technology (ICT) company might need
to undergo different certification processes to sell its products and
services in several Member States.

The Commission will therefore look into a possible European certification
framework for ICT security products.

Moreover, a myriad of innovative European small and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) have emerged in niche markets (such as cryptography) and
in well-established markets with new business models (such as antivirus
software), but they are often unable to scale up their operations.

The Commission wants to ease access to finance for smaller businesses
working in the field of cybersecurity and will explore different options
under the EU investment plan which aims to mobilise €315 billion in public
and private funds for investments in Europe.
Europe needs high quality, affordable and interoperable cybersecurity
products and services.

There is a major opportunity for our cybersecurity industry to compete in a
fast-growing global market. The milestone partnership on cybersecurity
launched by the European Commission is a big step forward.
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