Brussels, 24/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - On 23 July, the European Commission opened a public consultation exercise to ascertain what views are held by stakeholders on measures to be taken in the event of cyber-accidents, which can seriously harm the way the information system networks function, including the internet. The Commission hopes to gather the maximum number of opinions to help it prepare a legislative proposal on network and information security, which will be an important element of the upcoming EU strategy on cyber-security. The consultation process will be open until 12 October.
In 2011, cyber-attacks had increased by 36% over one year. Between 2007 and 2010, there was a five-fold increase in the number of companies reporting security incidents with a financial impact (5%- 20%). In the next decade there is a 10% risk of a major critical information infrastructure incident causing more than $250 billion in economic damage, according to the World Economic Forum. It is all the more worrying that an increasing number of infrastructure incidents and attacks have their origin outside European borders. Such a situation has meant that the relevant authorities have had to envisage a European cyber-security strategy that will be presented this year. The objective is to build a reliable and secure digital environment throughout the EU territory. (IL/transl.jl)