Be the muscle for the digital age

Neelie Kroes, European commissioner for digital agenda, said in a speech recently to the European Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy that her ambition is to “reinforce” the European Network and Information Security Agency (Enisa) as the world moves to even greater connectivity. Globalisation in a trade sense of the word was step one of two of making the world a smaller place. The digital age is step two. To add a bit of magniloquence to the blog, the revolution to bring humanity together is on the precipice of being achieved. World peace will be the final chapter to that story.

Anyways, that’s a digression. Ms Kroes outlined two ways in which this can be achieved.

“First, ENISA must be able to attract and to retain the very best IT security experts in Europe. Second, ENISA staff and stakeholders must have the best conditions for networking. This is essential for the Agency to carry out its mission successfully,” she told colleagues in Brussels.

What her comments highlight is the simple fact that this is an important age for professionals operating in governance & compliance and the information security & risk management industries and all affiliated sectors. What she wants is for robust defence mechanisms to be in place by 2015, which experts like yourself can help make a reality. The European Commission wants digital security to be more “muscular”, language which suggests a move towards being more proactive – swift and thorough reactive approaches are brilliant, but preventative is always preferable to damage limitation.

Interestingly, in her speech Ms Kroes suggested that powerful countries like those in the eurozone, China and, of course, the United States would benefit from working with, cooperating and up-skilling so-called “third” countries – by which we deduce she meant third world/emerging countries.

The truth is, in order to minimise their chances from being caught, punished and reprimanded by the authorities, cyber criminals attempt to lose themselves in a digital and physical maze within these respective countries. Cross-collaboration, the sharing of information and a genuine multi-disciplinary approach has positive outcomes for all stakeholders.

This has already been touched upon in the idea of Pefias – a pan-European framework for electronic information, identification, authentication and signature. Can you contribute to this? What ideas do you have? One place to share your thoughts and ideas is at our monthly RANT event. Be part of the conversation. Be the change Ms Kroes is looking for.