BRUSSELS, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- The European Commission on Tuesday proposed to reinforce the European Union's (EU) resilience and response to cyber attacks.
The Commission said in a statement that this would include strengthening the EU Agency for Network and Information Security, creating an EU-wide cyber-security certification framework, a blueprint on how to respond to large-scale cyber-security incidents and crises, and a European cyber-security research and competence center.
The statement said that the initiative would be important as the EU needs large-scale investment in cyber-security technologies and expertise to achieve autonomy and to protect its digital economy, society, and democracy.
For this purpose, the European cyber-security research and competence center will help develop and roll out the tools and technology necessary to keep up with an ever-changing threat.
According to official figures, since the beginning of 2016, more than 4,000 ransomware attacks have occurred worldwide every day, a 300-percent increase since 2015, while 80 percent of European companies were affected last year.
A Eurobarometer survey showed that 87 percent of respondents regard cyber crime as an important challenge to the EU's internal security and a majority are concerned about being victims of various forms of cyber crime, with the largest proportions concerned about discovering malicious software on their devices (69 percent).
