On 9 July 2015 the European Parliament published its European agenda on security, setting out the current situation of security in the European Union before identifying three key areas upon which efforts should be focused: terrorism, radicalism and cybercrime.

Cybercrime

The European Parliament recognises the significant threat that cybercrime poses to both businesses and individuals and emphasises that terrorist organisations and organised criminal groups are increasingly using cyberspace to facilitate different avenues of crime. The emphasis on cybercrime follows previous announcements by both EU institutions and cybersecurity experts advocating the need for international cooperation and an overall cybercrime centre to counter the global growth of cybercrime. In order to achieve this a number of counter security methods were set out in the agenda, including:

  • Calling on the European Commission to perform a thorough analysis of law enforcement powers available to tackle this problem and also launch a corresponding awareness and preparedness campaign to promote the threats of cybercrime
  • Highlighting the importance of research and innovation and the need to have a competitive EU security industry to encourage growth within Europe’s security sector

Continue Reading European Parliament publishes its proposals for the security of the EU

This post was written by Cynthia O’Donoghue.

In early July, the European Parliament adopted a new directive harmonizing the criminal laws relating to cyberattacks (Directive). It will replace the current nonbinding agreement between EU countries from 2005 (Framework Decision 2005/222/JHA). The Directive aims to harmonise the approach to cybercrime, by requiring all

The use of cloud computing services is growing at an unprecedented rate, and brings with it concerns over the security of personal data stored on cloud servers. A recent study by the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (“LIBE”) argues that the main issue arising from the growing use of cloud

This post was written by Cynthia O’Donoghue.

In a communication from the European Commission to the Council and European Parliament, the Commission proposes establishing a European Cybercrime Centre (“EC3”) to be part of Europol to “act as the focal point in the fight against cybercrime in the EU”. In its communication, the Commission highlights