It Just Got More Difficult to Rob a Bank in Europe

A recent vote by the E.U.'s Telecom Council hopes to make computer security an area in which the E.U. nations act as one.

By Paul Roberts

February 01, 2004 — CSO — Global Cybersecurity Reaching consensus on anything in Europe is notoriously difficult. Discussions of a common currency or a European Union constitution often get bogged down amid nationalism and differing agendas.

However, a recent vote by the E.U.'s Telecom Council hopes to make computer security an area in which the E.U. nations act as one. The council voted on Nov. 20, 2003, to create the European Network and Information Security Agency, or ENISA, following a vote by the European Parliament approving the creation of the new agency.

ENISA, which will be temporarily based in Brussels, Belgium, will have a number of responsibilities. In addition to coordinating cybersecurity efforts between countries, the agency will be asked to analyze information on existing and emergent cybersecurity threats in Europe and develop policies within member states to address those risks.

ENISA will also be asked to coordinate efforts to educate the public about security risks that go along with using the Internet and ways to protect computers from attack. As with organizations such as the CERT Coordination Center and the SANS Institute in the United States, ENISA will work closely with the private sector to implement risk assessment and risk management strategies for E.U. corporate networks. The new agency may help to coordinate enforcement of computer crimes, which are increasingly organized and international, according to Graham Cluley of United Kingdom-based antivirus company Sophos. "It used to be that you could rob a bank in Europe, and then take off with the cash for Mexico. Today, you can be on the beach in Mexico with a laptop and hack into a bank halfway around the world," he says.

Currently, many E.U. member nations have their own groups to investigate cybercrimes, such as the National High-Tech Crime Unit in the United Kingdom, Cluley says. Those will not go away, but ENISA could make it easier for them to share information about cybercriminals. "Sharing information between countries increases the chances of successfully apprehending those behind the crimes," he adds.

Read more about data protection in CSOonline's Data Protection section.

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