13/03/2013 Culture, Science, Education and Media
Strasbourg, 11.03.2013 - Greater awareness, transparency and accountability are essential in order to improve security in cyberspace, according to rapporteur Axel Fischer (Germany, EPP/CD), speaking today at a hearing organised by PACE’s Culture Committee in Paris, on “Improving user protection and security in cyberspace”. He also emphasised that, while it is possible to impose a transparency requirement on commercial service providers and intermediaries, that may be more difficult where private social networks and user-generated content are concerned.
“There were 30 million attacks in cyberspace in the month of February alone, giving an idea of the extent of the problem of consumer protection on the Internet,” said Mr Fischer. He proposed to analyse the scope of the protection afforded by the Council of Europe Cybercrime Convention, and possibly to extend it to cover malware attacks against the integrity of computer systems and also any deliberate refusal to provide essential components necessary for the functioning of computer networks in the public domain.
The rapporteur also proposed an agreement on a list of prohibited commercial practices and on pan-European benchmarking of quality standards in the commercial sector. Other measures considered at the hearing included encryption software, on-line help systems for parents and children and on-line dispute resolution and redress mechanisms.