Symantec Briefs Lords On Cyber Terrorism Threat

Symantec is today briefing the House the Lords about the risks of cyber terrorism to the UK, and how a natural disaster, which impacts the internet, could affect the country as a whole.

Ilias Chantzos, Symantec’s director of government relations for Europe and Asia Pacific, is to face a House of Lords committee on Wednesday 9th December to answer peers’ questions on whether European governments are right to fear cyber-attacks, and how they can work together to mitigate the risks they pose.

Chantzos is also expected to advise the UK Parliament on the EU’s policy on protecting European governments from large scale cyber attacks on critical infrastructure.

The vast bulk of Europe’s critical infrastructure (90 percent) is not actually controlled by the Government but it is privately owned and crosses international borders. Symantec said it will counsel that only a co-operative between public and private sectors and Member States can secure the EU from malicious attacks and high impact, low probability “Black Swan” events.

Symantec said it will discuss a number of issues relating to security, including how vulnerable the internet is to widespread technical failures or natural disasters. It will explore whether regulatory intervention is unavoidable to ensure the resilience and stability of the internet, and how concerned we should be about criminally operated “botnets”.

It will also ask whether the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) is the right body to develop national Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) within EU member states.

Back in August, the British Government asked technology experts and scientists to help identify emerging threats from terrorists, who seek to harness new developments in IT and other technologies.