Cybersecurity, a priority for the Italian semester

The growth speed of online illegal activities is a source of concern. Rome is committed to maintain the fight against them, in spite of the electoral period and the formation of a new Commission

 Cybersecurity will be key during the EU Italian Presidency Semester. The target is avoiding the commitment against online crimes to lose strength, even though a regulatory slow-down will be inevitable due to the change of European Parliament and Commission.

“Great online crime organization, as mafia, ‘ndrangheta, camorra or pedo-pornography have a budget of about euro 200 million a year, generated by online illicit activities. 10 percent comes from profits generated in Italy, the rest from other countries,” said Gianfranco Incarnato, coordinator of the Cybersecurity Department of the Foreign Affair Ministry, during the presentation of the strategic priorities of the EU Italian Presidency Semester, at the annual conference on cybersecurity organized by Forum Europe in Brussels.

Mr. Incarnato has started his speech quoting Karl Popper: “We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than only freedom can make security more secure.” Incarnato has then commented the strategic priorities of the EU Italian Presidency Semester in fighting cyber-crime: “This is an extremely delicate phase at European level, but priority is not only complying to a contingency plan, we also want meet the dimension of technical advancements with a political vision.”

The months to come will be dominated by eurosceptic trends as well as by the risk of significant delays in institutional activities due to the European Elections, Italy underlined its commitment in trying to avoid the loss of the results achieved so far. No discontinuity of actions for safeguarding online security.

Incarnato stressed that the speed of evolution of cybercrime approach and practices should be taken into account and should be faced with even faster actions by European institutions. “Fifty percent of current crimes,” added Eugenio Orlani, Europol, “are made online, feeding the income from cybercrime faster and faster: it is now more profitable than heroin and marijuana trafficking, together.” Hence, “the challenge will be to reach, by the end of 2014, the end of the negotiation process and the following implementation of the European Directive on the Safety of Information Networks.”

 Giulia Garofalo