site.btaEU to Develop Single Coordination Mechanism in Case of Cyberattacks

Varna, September 3 (BTA) - A single European coordination mechanism will be developed within the EU to fight cyberattacks, Bulgarian Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, Mariya Gabriel, said in Varna. She was a lecturer at the 10th Summer University of the youth structure of GERB. The legislative package about the single European mechanism will be presented within two or three weeks.

Commissioner Gabriel noted that there is a tangible increase of the number of cyberattacks. For example, in 2016 they grew by more than 300 per cent year-on-year. She said that over 200,000 cyberattacks take place on a daily basis.

According to the Commissioner, it is very important to establish a product certification system, so that when buying a product consumers would know that it fulfills certain security requirements at EU level. Within a few years there will be over 20,000 million Internet-related products - from smartphones to notebook computers.

The European Commission launched an Internet forum for fighting content related to terrorism, said Gabriel adding that it is in direct coordination with Europol. There are over 30,000 downloads of such content.

She noted the success of the Directive on the security of network and information systems on the other hand. It is very important that the member states comply with the deadline for its implementation which is May 2018.

The EU Commissioner mentioned another two initiatives. The first involves putting an end to geo-blocking. The second one is a project on providing wireless and free Internet access to municipalities in the course of three years. The budget is 120 million euro and will cover 6,000 to 8,000 municipalities. She advised the Bulgarian municipalities to act quickly because the funding will be distributed on a first-come-first-served based. The application form will be simple and there will be no restriction as to the number of applying municipalities per country.