Europe is reforming its cyber security system

Today, the European Union will propose new cybersecurity rules that require search engines, energy service providers, banks, and other companies to inform their governments about interruptions in their work. The innovations also cover transit gas distribution stations, stock exchanges and other enterprises. The European Commission had to make such a decision, after his proposal to do so on a voluntary basis failed.

In order for this proposal to become law, it must first be considered and discussed by members of the European Parliament and the leaders of the 27 member states of the union. Usually, after making the necessary amendments, such proposals are eventually approved.

“Information systems can be subject to various incidents, such as human errors, natural disasters, technical failures in work or malicious attacks,” the draft proposal says. “These incidents are getting bigger, more private, and more complex.”

In accordance with the proposal, when EU member states implement different cybersecurity rules and do not want to share information with their neighbors because they fear that they are in a more secure position, the unit becomes even more prone to attacks.

“The current situation in the EU reflects that the purely voluntary approach used up to this point does not guarantee sufficient protection against incidents in networks and information security systems, as well as their threats throughout the EU,” the document says.

The new rules will be jointly introduced today by the heads of the EU departments in the field of foreign policy, defense, technology, telecommunications and internal affairs.

“We need to step up global efforts to combat cybercrime, which negatively affect the reliability of online services and thus damage our economies,” said EU spokesman Catherine Ashton last October.

As part of the proposal, all EU countries will have to establish special authorities to monitor online security, as well as create a team of rapid response to computer accidents. Many of the European countries currently already possess such institutions.

According to EU officials, this will help countries to more actively exchange information and demonstrate the proper degree of mutual assistance. The UK, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden were cited as examples of the countries that most effectively deal with cybersecurity in Europe.

Earlier this month, the UK parliamentary committee said that lack of preparedness for cyber attacks puts the military in the face of a serious threat. The British government has allocated 650 million pounds ($ 1.02 billion) to modernize its facilities in order to combat cyber attacks.

Recently, the world has stirred up several high-profile incidents involving the hacking of computer systems, which have attracted serious media attention. The social network Twitter reported unauthorized attempts to gain access to such personal information of users, like nicknames and passwords. The Wall Street Journal and some other Western newspapers accuse Chinese hackers of penetrating their editorial computers. Meanwhile, the Chinese side refutes these assumptions.

There are also plans to cooperate with countries outside the bloc to strengthen security. Among these countries are the states of the Balkan region and West Africa, and Nigeria, according to EU officials, is one of the epicenters of illegal online activity.

In the US, the situation is exactly the opposite. In August last year, the White House introduced a bill establishing a voluntary regime for the work of standards in the field of cyber security. However, he was never accepted because the congressmen from the Republican Party blocked him.

If the proposal of the EU authorities is approved, according to officials, it will affect almost 40,000 companies. These include Internet giants such as Facebook, Twitter, and various cloud services. Companies will be obliged to inform the authorities about situations with violations related to the protection of personal data, as well as “incidents of serious importance”. Such incidents can be the result of natural disasters, dangerous weather, human error and hacker attacks. With regard to penalties for non-compliance with such conditions, their parliamentarians have yet to be determined.

Source: WSJ.com

The article is based on materials https://hi-news.ru/computers/evropa-reformiruet-svoyu-sistemu-kiberbezopasnosti.html.