Digital infrastructure and services are vulnerable to a growing risk of cybercrime and cyber-attacks that threaten Europe’s prosperity and quality of life. The scale of the problem necessitates a Europe-wide response. Recent figures show that digital threats are evolving at a fast pace: ransomware attacks have increased by 300% since 2015. According to several studies, the economic impact of cybercrime rose fivefold from 2013 to 2017, and could further rise by a factor of four by 20191. 

 

In view of a dynamically evolving threat landscape and building on the review of the 2013 EU cyber-security strategy, last September the European Commission adopted a cyber-security package. The package builds upon existing instruments and presents new initiatives to further improve EU cyber resilience and response to better protect consumers against cyber attacks, to give the EU cyber-security agency (ENISA) a stronger role to prevent and combat ID theft and online fraud, and establish an effective European certification scheme for online services and products in a bid to improve consumer confidence. 

 

These measures will ensure that the EU is better prepared to face the ever-increasing cyber-security challenges.