Election interference. Fake news. Hyper-partisanship. Ransomware. Denial of service attacks. Cyber-terrorism. Welcome to Europe’s new normal, writes Philippe Cotelle.
Philippe Cotelle is a board member of the European Federation of Risk Management Associations (FERMA), and head of Insurance Risk Management for Airbus Defence and Space.
With at least seven parliamentary elections scheduled for in the European Union in 2019, plus European Parliament elections, the continent’s leaders are in a frenzy of damage control. The European Commission has launched initiatives to harden information technology infrastructure and fight fake news and it is organising a high-level conference in October on Election Interference in the Digital Age. Austria, which currently holds the Union’s rotating presidency, hopes to reach political agreement with the Commission and European Parliament on a new EU Cybersecurity Act before the end of the year.
Judging by the evidence, these efforts are desperately necessary to ensure that Europe’s elections and markets run smoothly. They are also possibly too late to ensure that they do so anytime soon. That means Europe needs to step…
