EU invests €450 million in internet security partnership

The European Union has announced a partnership between public and private organizations to enable research and innovation in internet security. A first investment by the EU amounts to 450 million euros.

The European Commission expects that parties in the internet security market will eventually supplement this initial investment to an amount of 1.8 billion euros. The partnership also consists of national and regional government bodies, in combination with research institutions and other scientific organizations.

The purpose of the association is to encourage collaboration when it comes to research and innovation in the field of security products. These can then be used in sectors such as health, energy, transport and finance. The Commission underlines the need for such products by stating that a security incident occurred at 80% of European companies in the past year.

The money for the EU’s investment comes from the Horizon 2020 research programme. In addition to this measure, the Commission also wants to tackle fragmentation in the market for security products. At the moment, a company would have to go through different certification procedures in order to be able to sell its security products in different Member States. As a possible solution, the Commission is examining the possibility of a European certification system.