By Tim Ferguson, 5 December 2007 12:49
NEWS
The European Commission is intent on boosting data security and raising awareness around the protection of personal information.
Speaking at the Microsoft Innovation Day in Brussels yesterday, vice president of the European Commission, Franco Frattini, said: "We must dramatically improve people's awareness of these crimes. Better data protection would also have a positive impact on consumer trust in cyberspace."
Security from A to Z
Click on the links below to find out more...
A is for Antivirus
B is for Botnets
C is for CMA
D is for DDoS
E is for Extradition
F is for Federated identity
G is for Google
H is for Hackers
I is for IM
J is for Jaschan (Sven)
K is for Kids
L is for Love Bug
M is for Microsoft
N is for Neologisms
O is for Orange
P is for Passwords
Q is for Questions
R is for Rootkits
S is for Spyware
T is for Two-factor authentication
U is for USB sticks/devices
V is for Virus variants
W is for Wi-fi
X is for OS X
Y is for You
Z is for Zero-day
He added: "We fully support the development of privacy protection technology. I think privacy and protection of personal data is a long term goal."
Frattini said differences in the way the issue is tackled by national regulators need to be reconciled as they create weaknesses that criminals can exploit.
He referred to the rise in phishing saying there are now around 31,000 known websites providing phishing toolkits for criminals to exploit.
He said: "New technology brings new challenges but technology can also help us tackle these problems."
Also speaking at the event in Brussels, the European Commissioner for information society and media, Viviane Reding, said the software industry has a large role to play in Europe. She said: "The main significance of software is that it's everywhere. That is why the software industry has an importance that goes beyond the industry per se."
Comments
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1. Roger Huffadine
Good idea - let's standardise the method for data security in the EC then the criminals won't have to work so hard.
2. Karen Challinor
"The European Commission is intent on boosting data security and raising awareness around the protection of personal information"
oo another piece of EU bumph which will be roundly ignored by the government ... I think the "protection of personal information" bit is the part that will cause the problem
3. Jeremy Wickins
Got to agree with Roger - standardisation is the enemy of good data protection. Why make the possibility of a class-attack more likely than it already is?
4. Richard
I have to disagree:
I have several online accounts and other protected services:
At present, they each have very different security mechanisms.
Some treat a piece of information as a security "key" whereas others may treat the same piece of information as low security, potentially making it available to criminals.
Whilst this variety of different mechanisms may appear to give extra security - security through obscurity - and to provide room for useful innovation;
The overall effect is to lower my overall security - and to ensure that I have to keep written "prompts" to help me remember.
So, if it were sufficient secure, convenient and reliable, a standardised access method would improve my overall security.
Standardisation would also make it easier for customers to spot dangerous anomalies, such as criminals' software running in the same browser window.