Brussels, 01/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - Businesses, individuals and public administrations in Europe still underestimate the risks of insufficiently protecting networks and information. This is the conclusions of the European Commission, which consequently adopted a policy document on Tuesday 30 May for promoting greater awareness, through an open and inclusive multi-stakeholder dialogue on a new IT Security Strategy for Europe. Security presently represents only around 5-13% of IT expenditure, which is alarmingly low, given the flourishing and development of threats from cyber-crime and crime gangs. Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding affirmed that, “In the past, hackers were motivated by a desire to show off whereas today, many threats come from criminal activities and are motivated by profit. The Commissioner is developing a renewed strategy based on dialogue, partnership and empowerment. To this end it will be developing a partnership amongst Member States, involving the IT industry and users as well as the European network security agency ENISA. This strategy should lead to people and organisations becoming empowered for looking after their own interests and responsibilities. Initially, stakeholders need reliable information on network and information security incidents to help them take the steps necessary to ensure their own security and safety. An analysis of security “incidents” should point to solutions and best practices to be adopted by public and commercial organisations and in peoples' homes. Specific proposals of the Commission include the benchmarking of national policies on network and information security to improve the dialogue between public authorities, to identify best practices and to raise the security awareness of end-users. ENISA will be entrusted to develop an appropriate data collection framework to handle security incidents and measured levels of consumer confidence from all over Europe. ENISA will also be asked to examine the feasibility of a multilingual information sharing and alert system. Finally, Member States and the private sector are invited to play a more proactive and energetic role in enhancing network and information security.