European Union Moves To Protect Online Data Infrastructure

In a bid to protect the European economy’s digital backbone of communications services and networks, the European Commission (EC) has unveiled a new strategy building on 2006’s ‘Strategy for a Secure Information Society’. The strategy will create a forum for the exchange of information and transfer of good policy practices, bringing the data protection standards of the different states to a single, unified level, as inconsistencies in online data backup and protection policies make countermeasures ineffective and put other states at risk.

As more business activities are transacted online, the need for adequate protection from cyber terrorism, hardware failure, natural disaster and human error across the continent has become more urgent (the new strategy comes fresh after high profile attacks on European Union member states, Georgia, Lithuania and Estonia). In a statement, commissioner for Information Society and Media Viviane Reding said, “Europe must be at the forefront in engaging citizens, businesses and public administrations to tackle the challenges of improving the security and resilience of Europe's critical information infrastructures. There must be no weak links in Europe's cyber security.”