ECSO presents its global vision for future European cybersecurity

In the era of the “new normal”, where the global challenges brought on by COVID-19 impact everyone’s daily lives, cybersecurity has acquired greater attention due to the increased reliance on digital services. Following the ECSO Barometer released in 2020, ECSO’s Nina Olesen presented ECSO’s global vision for European cybersecurity for 2021-2027 at ECHO’s latest CYBER MORNINGS talk, organised by ECSO Member Laurea.

As part of the European project ECHO’s regular Cyber Morning event, ECSO recently shared the results of a 2020 survey which gathered input from ECSO Members and the wider community on the expected impact of COVID-19 on cybersecurity. The work conducted on a common cybersecurity response package in light of COVID-19, as well as ECSO’s vision for cybersecurity until 2027, was also presented.

“Together with our Members, we at ECSO are defining our priorities in accordance with the three main challenges that the EU has identified for the coming years: The European Green Deal, the Digital Transformation Strategy and Europe’s recovery plan”, said Nina Olesen. “ECSO’s strength relies on the variety of its Membership: The cybersecurity recommendations that we have defined and the cybersecurity response package in which we consolidated COVID-19 resources from the community directly reflect this, and have helped us develop a cybersecurity vision for the upcoming years”, she concluded.

In ECSO’s vision for future cybersecurity, there should be a comprehensive idea of possible future scenarios which could disrupt the sector, as well as a global approach across strategic digital technologies which will consider also the human factor and European values. To achieve this vision, public-private partnerships will be key, along with investment programmes such as Horizon Europe and the Digital Europe Programme, capacity building, public and private investments and strong political support, also at national level. There would be clear benefits to such a vision, starting from an economic recovery and societal resilience, better national security, improved awareness among citizens, digital sovereignty, digital autonomy and much more.

More information about ECSO’s recommendations on cybersecurity in light of the COVID-19 crisis is available at this link.

Click here to read more about the contributions from ECSO Members as part of the cybersecurity response package.

Photo credits: Per Lööv, Unsplash