21 December 2016 — The Italian banking sector have come together to create a specialised Certfincybersecurity response team. The team will help to protect the country’s financial sector, whilst developing new methods to combat evolving hacker technology.

In the UK defence contractor BAE Systems has announced that it will allocate a third of its incoming graduate class to its cyber security department. The move was allegedly prompted by a survey of business heads who emphasised their cyber security concerns…

14 December 2016 — The EU’s advisor on cyber security has this week warned that the European Union is unprepared for a major cyberattack in any of the member states. Mr Helmbrecht has stated that the EU has not learnt enough lessons from the 2007 cyber attack that crippled Estonia for three weeks, stating that governance issues had not been improved.

Companies across the EU have begun to test the EU’s net neutrality laws through the introduction of zero-rated data products. While the EU legislated on net neutrality in April, the enforcement guidelines issued by EU regulator BEREC allow for deviations amongst national regulators…

30 November 2016 — The importance of cybersecurity struck home in the EU this week after the European Commission was targeted in a DDoS attack. Over the course of 24th November several attacks targeted the EU’s main website and network gateways, leaving staff unable to work. However no data is believed to have been stolen.

In the UK, plans for the first National College of Cyber-Security have been announced. The College would be situated at Bletchley Park, the UK’s code breaking headquarters during WWII and would cater to gifted 16-19 year olds…

23 November 2016 — Divisions within the EU member states have become widely apparent this week as 5 members called on the EU to introduce rules on encryption across the union. Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Poland and Hungary want the new law to allow investigators access to encrypted data and access to data outside their jurisdictions.

Following a review by the Cyber Readiness Index Italy has received low marks for defence and crisis response amongst others whilst scoring higher marks for its overall national strategy…

16 November 2016 — This week a new survey of IT Professionals in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Africa has found that 95% of IT professionals view cybersecurity as the most important skill for the job market in 2017.

Elsewhere the chief security officer at Facebook has revealed at a Web summit in Lisbon, that the social media company has adopted the practice of buying up alleged stolen passwords from the dark web, in order to crossreference them with Facebook’s records…

9 November 2016 — The US-EU Privacy shield has hit a further obstacle this week with the introduction of a second legal suit from two French internet rights associations. The major concern of the two groups is the limited protections for EU citizens with the agreement only creating an oversight body for American Businesses.

 Elsewhere in the EU, national telecoms regulators have fought back against attempts by the Commission to create a new EU wide telelcoms regulator that would amalgamate existing national bodies. This new attempt marks the latest in a succession of moves by the Commission to create a regulatory body over which they could hold a final veto power on issues like net neutrality…

2 November 2016 — In the EU this week the US-EU Privacy shield hit a new obstacle with the launch of a legal challenge by civil liberties group Digital Rights Ireland. The challenge is based on concerns for privacy and has been lodged in the European Court of Justice’s lowest court.

Elsewhere the Romanian Education Ministry has announced plans to introduce cybersecurity subjects to children as young as 11 in order to build up the country’s pool of cyber security experts…

26 October 2016 — This week the EU Commission has announced plans to boost cyber skills in the European Union, through the introduction of faster internet connections in schools and major public areas, such as transport hubs.

In Ireland this week the Government has followed the lead of the UK Government by publishing plans to build its own Cyber Security centre. The plans will also include an education program to ensure businesses and citizens better follow existing cybersecurity protocols…

19 October 2016 — This week in Europe, German cyber and technology industries have warned the European Commission about the dangers of excessively free flowing open data. They have suggested that they need to find the right balance between encouraging an open market, and cyber protection. Failing to do so, they warn, could leave Europe vulnerable.

National Election day in Montenegro was hit by a number of cyber attacks. The attacks were DDOS based attacks and targeted a number of news outlets and telecoms groups. It is not clear who carried out the attacks or for what specific purpose…

12 October 2016 — This week the EU’s Telecom regulator Berec has outlined its work programme for 2017. Of significance in the regulator’s plans are the enforcement of the EU’s new net neutrality regulations as well as future plans for electronic communications regulations. A consultation on the body’s work programme will run until the 2nd November.

In the Netherlands the Senate is set to vote on whether to adopt new EU rules on net neutrality. The Government wish to retain the Netherland’s stricter rules on positive price discrimination rather than adopt the EU’s more lenient measures…

5 October 2016 — In the European Union this week, the Commission has announced plans to implement rules for internet connected machines to meet certain levels of cyber security. The move continues the EU’s stance of boosting IOT innovation through the encouragement of internet connectivity in commercial products.

The EU has begun to debate new export controls for cyber security and surveillance products. The proposed reform package will lead to fewer restrictions for encryption, while increasing regulations on digital interception…

28 September 2016 — In Europe MEPs have been considering the use of ‘big data’ and a report is currently being drafted by Ana Gomes. By 2017, the big data market is expected to reach €50 billion and create 3.75 million new jobs.

German data protection authorities have ordered Facebook to delete data, such as phone numbers, it has received from its subsidiary WhatsApp.

A report from Kaspersky Labs has found that the use of biometric data in lieu of passwords and pin codes are still highly susceptible to being hacked. This is primarily due to the fact that once hacked, biometric data cannot be altered unlike conventional digital passwords…

21 September 2016 — In European news, the Chief of GCHQ Ciaran Martin, hopes for the practice of using DNS filters to prevent cyber-attacks to become a common place practice in the organisation. He described this as a “flagship project”, which aims to stop ‘bad web addresses’, disguised as legitimate domains which spread malware and viruses.

Coding and computer science are to be at the forefront of Ireland’s new education plan, which aims to give Ireland the best education system in Europe by 2026. The plan will see cyber skills (including coding) instructed to children at primary school level…

15 September 2016 — Ahead of his confirmation as the EUs latest Commissioner, Sir Julian King has told the European Parliament that the EUs security is being weakened by back door encryption. Sir Julian is set to become the EUs Commissioner for the Security Union and will likely be the UKs last EU Commissioner, following the EU referendum result in June.

New rules from the EU will place greater pressure on American company transactions in Europe, with repercussions for Google, Facebook and WhatsApp as a result of new rules to regulate the digital market place, from encryption monitoring to net neutrality…

7 September 2016 — Following the clarification of Berec’s net neutrality guidelines last week the mobile network Three has fallen foul of the regulator for its planned network level adblocker. Whilst Berec has stated that adblockers should not be available at the network level, a final decision on the issue will be made by the UK regulator Ofcom.

In cyber security news this week the UK and India have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to exchange information on cyber attacks regarding both countries. The UK has also signed a similar agreement with the USA, with both the Indian and American agreements designed to improve cooperation on cyber issues with the UK…