[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/6585\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EBan on software \u2018backdoors\u2019 could help small businesses \u2013 industry body\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBackdoors are ways of bypassing normal authentication processes in software, which allow people to gain access to users\u2019 data.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAlex Whalen, a senior policy manager at Digital Europe, a membership organisation representing the digital technology industry, says that companies often come under pressure from governments to provide backdoors or decryption keys in their products.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Understandably, from the point (of view) of government, there\u2019s a lot of concern about being able to protect society and the barriers they face with encryption technology,\u2019 he said. \u2018But that\u2019s something that our members don\u2019t want to budge on at all, they don\u2019t want to provide backdoors or give keys or in any way weaken encryption.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHe was speaking in response to an independent scientific opinion about how to shore up cybersecurity in Europe, which was published on 24 March by the EU\u2019s Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM). In it, the authors \u2013 a selection of leading European scientists from a range of disciplines \u2013 recommend that \u2018neither backdoors nor other ways of weakening encryption should be introduced\u2019.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe report said a general no-backdoor policy could be crucial to small businesses, who may find it hard to resist government-mandated backdoors and could easily lose trust and customers as a result.\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018If you start weakening encryption or you provide backdoors \u2026 hackers will find a way to utilise those backdoors.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EAlex Whalen, Senior Policy Manager, Digital Europe\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhalen also points out that the deliberate bypassing of authentication would, in fact, decrease security. \u2018If you start weakening encryption or you provide backdoors, although the intention might be great and positive for the government, hackers will find a way to utilise those backdoors. For companies that\u2019s certainly something they \u2026 can\u2019t allow for their customers.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe recommendation was one of 10 coming out of the report, which covered issues of data protection and privacy as well as cybersecurity. It does not recommend specific policies, but rather is designed to be used as a basis for updating the EU\u2019s cybersecurity strategy, the current version of which dates from 2013.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAn updated policy is considered critical to complete the EU\u2019s digital single market to allow digital companies to operate across borders by removing regulatory barriers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETraining\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne of the other key issues that emerged from the report was training \u2013 both for end users and professionals \u2013 to ensure that cybersecurity is not undermined.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFabrizio Gagliardi, from the Association for Computing Machinery, which represents 15 000 computing professionals in Europe and 100 000 worldwide, agreed that more education and training is vital to ensure that people are aware of their responsibilities.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The weakest component very often is the user, the human factor. Of course you need an infrastructure that is well-designed, but you also need educated users. Any student needs to be educated to a minimum in rules or sets of principles because if they don\u2019t learn very early on then \u2026 they will have a relaxed attitude towards security, privacy (and) data protection.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe scientific opinion recommends that the EU works to promote data-literacy education and build people\u2019s awareness on cybersecurity. However, it also cautions against piling blame on users at the expense of creating more secure systems.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Calling for knowledgeable and responsible users should not be used as a step towards imparting blame to users for issues beyond their awareness, control or power,\u2019 says the report.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAgust\u00edn Reyna, a senior legal officer with the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), agrees. \u0027There is a lack of awareness about the risks and there is room for consumer education, clearly. But the responsibility shouldn\u0027t be put on the shoulders of the consumer in the sense that providing information is not itself enough to clear from any type of liability the suppliers or the developer.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0027There are things that are out of control of consumers in terms of security, particularly in relation to data breaches that happen at service level. We have to work much more on where we define the lines.\u0027\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe report also recommends that the EU works to promote lifelong cybersecurity training among professionals and educate systems engineers to develop a security skills base in Europe.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/bit.ly\/newsalertsignup\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003E\u003Cimg src=\u0022https:\/\/horizon-magazine.eu\/research-and-innovation\/sites\/default\/files\/hm\/news-alert-final.jpg\u0022 width=\u0022983\u0022 height=\u0022222\u0022 \/\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs for next steps forward, Gagliardi says that the important thing is to ensure that the scientific opinion is acted upon.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018It\u2019s only by keeping hammering the authorities, the policymakers, on the importance of the programme that something will happen. That is one (piece of) advice I could give to SAM \u2013 keep insisting. Come back in one year ... and ask: \u201cWhat have you done to follow our recommendations?\u201d \u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EIf you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022moreinfoblock\u0022\u003E\n \u003Ch3\u003ESAM opinion on cybersecurity\u003C\/h3\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003E\u003Cspan style=\u0022font-size: 13.008px;\u0022\u003EThe independent scientific opinion on cybersecurity in the European digital single market contains a number of recommendations to make it easier and safer for people and businesses to operate online in the EU. It was compiled by drawing on existing scientific reports and literature, consultations with experts and feedback from policy, industry and civil society stakeholders.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe recommendations address making systems more secure, empowering users, strengthening Europe\u2019s cybersecurity industry, and improving the coordination and sharing of information across Europe.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe full report is available here: \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/research\/sam\/index.cfm\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ehttps:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/research\/sam\/index.cfm\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-duddt4fv3-l8g6nbjduj6uijyyrzpmnk2tedrvfjovo\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-dUddt4Fv3-l8G6NbjduJ6UiJYYrZPmnK2TeDrvFjovo\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]