Cyber Security: EU and US Strengthen Transatlantic Cooperation in Face of Mounting Global Cyber-Security and Cyber-Crime Threats

News provided by

Delegation of the European Union to the United States

Apr 14, 2011, 04:28 ET

WASHINGTON, April 14, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As part of the EU-US Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial in Godollo (Hungary) today, Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice President for the Digital Agenda, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom and Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano reiterated their shared commitment to deepening cooperation to address the increasing threats to global internet and digital networks. They agreed to strengthen trans-Atlantic cooperation in cyber-security by defining the issues to be tackled by the EU-US Working Group on Cyber-Security and Cyber-Crime.

These efforts include:

expanding incident management response capabilities jointly and globally, through a cooperation program culminating in a joint EU-US cyber-incident exercise by the end of 2011
a broad commitment to engage the private sector, sharing of good practices on collaboration with industry, and pursuing specific engagement on key issue areas such as fighting botnets, securing industrial control systems (such as water treatment and power generation), and enhancing the resilience and stability of the Internet
a program of immediate joint awareness raising activities, sharing messages and models across the Atlantic, as well as a roadmap towards synchronized annual awareness efforts and a conference on child protection online in Silicon Valley by end 2011
continuing EU/US cooperation to remove child pornography from the Internet, including through work with domain-name registrars and registries
advancing the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, including a program to expand accession by all EU Member States, and collaboration to assist states outside the region in meeting its standards and become parties.

The Working Group, which was established at the EU-US Summit in November 2010, is tasked with developing collaborative approaches to a wide range of cyber-security and cyber-crime issues. It will be a model for outreach to other countries or organizations which address similar cyber issues in order to share approaches and related activities.

The Working Group will report to the next EU-US Summit which will take place at the end of the year.

For further information, please see: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/11/246

SOURCE Delegation of the European Union to the United States