pecific Challenge:
Some members of the digital society in the EU are more vulnerable as they are less prepared to confront with cyber-attacks. The scale, value and sensitivity of personal data in the cyberspace are significantly increasing and citizens are typically uncertain about who monitors, accesses and modifies their personal data. Personal data breach may facilitate abuse by third parties, including cyber-threats such as coercion, extortion and corruption.
In order to protect the freedom, security and privacy, and ensure personal data protection of the citizens in Europe, citizens should be enabled to assess the risk involved in their digital activities and configure their own security, privacy and personal data protection settings and controls across these services. Citizens need to be fully aware that their informed consent is necessary in many situations and become capable in providing their permission/consent for allowing accessing their personal data/devices/terminals with an increased level of granularity. Additionally there is a need for increased citizens' capacity to modulate the level and accuracy of the monitoring tools used by services (e.g. via cookies, positioning, tokens).
Most Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Micro Enterprises (SMEs&MEs) lack sufficient awareness and can only allocate limited resources - both technical and human - to counter cyber risks, hence they are an easier target (e.g. of ransomware attacks) compared to large organizations. Security professionals and experts working for SMEs&MEs need to be in a constant learning process since cybersecurity is a significantly complex and fast-evolving field. Taking into account the significant economic role of SMEs&MEs in the EU, tailored research to innovation should support cybersecurity for SMEs&MEs.
