back to article EU uncorks €1.8bn in cybersecurity investment. Thirsty, UK?

The EU Commission has launched a public-private partnership on cybersecurity that is expected to trigger €1.8bn ($2bn) of investment by 2020. The EU is promising to invest €450m ($502m) in a bid to spur innovation in cybersecurity with the remainder coming from the private sector. Some security commentators reckon the Brexit …

  1. OhDearHimAgain

    misleading journalism at its best

    Currently the only money we receive from the EU is money we had already sent them in the first place - only to allow them to decide how much, and to where, to send it back.

    The suggestion is therefore, that after we leave we will "miss out" on getting some of our money back - this assumes that after exit, we will still be giving the EU quite so much money.

    Once we have left we will not be "missing out" on EU funding as the Commission does not actually make any money itself, it only takes money from member states, then gives a proportion of it back.

    If I give you £100 and you give me back £50 - should I stop giving you the £100, i am not "missing out" on getting the £50 back - it was my £50 in the first place.

    1. Xamol

      Re: misleading journalism at its best

      Sure... and we'll still have 349 million a week to spend on the NHS.

    2. hammarbtyp

      Re: misleading journalism at its best

      Which part of public-private partnership do you not understand?

      This is not all EU money, but a partnership with technology partners.

      Yes the UK can form similar partnerships, but it will be competing with the EU program

      1. Roland6 Silver badge

        Re: misleading journalism at its best

        "Yes the UK can form similar partnerships, but it will be competing with the EU program juggernaut"

        The choice is do you want to be in the cab of that juggernaut or a fly on the windscreen?

    3. tfewster

      Re: misleading journalism at its best

      > If I give you £100 and you give me back £50...

      RTFA. The other £50 is invested in projects you will benefit from. Like an EU-wide certification so you don't have to spend £10 x 28 to certify in each of 28 countries.

  2. M7S
    FAIL

    "80 % of firms have had at least one cybersecurity incident" or somesuch

    I don't want to downplay the consequences of something bad happening to a firm/sole trader/person, nor invite the wrath of whoever, but this is the sort of claim that needs to be treated with caution. I suspect if I pointed out that I might have had a spear-phishing email, spotted this in my email client before opening it and deleted it, this would be treated as just such an incident.

    Given that it comes from a firm like PWC (and I regard all their equals in the same light), I'm even more sceptical.

  3. huanjo

    "EU is promising to invest €450m in a bid to spur innovation in cybersecurity"

    As with most EU projects, this is a "wishy-washy" project with no certain/defined outcome, based only on hope and an idea, project funds are subject to abuse and wastage. Haven't they heard of McAffee or is this the new EU mandatory antivirus software?

    1. Baldy50

      Re: "EU is promising to invest €450m in a bid to spur innovation in cybersecurity"

      OH didn't Mc bag of shite and others block MS from building in AV programs directly into XP!

      In the US courts as a conflict of interests and have made a shit load of revenue from scare scaremongering, sales of it's products and the wide spread proliferation of malware for all the AV providers, keeps us in fear and purchasing their bag of shite software which stops pretty much beggar all getting through anyway??????????

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "EU is promising to invest €450m in a bid to spur innovation in cybersecurity"

        OH didn't Mc bag of shite and others block MS from building in AV programs directly into XP! ... In the US courts ...

        Where does the US fit into in a discussion about the UK and its relationship with the EU? I'll grant you managed to cram in an IT angle but so many question marks and a single long, long mind dump of a sentence is a bit worrying.

        Did you forget to take the dried frog pills today?

  4. Aodhhan

    Yeesh... seriously

    One of the things which drive me crazy about the EU. Pay a huge amount of tax to fill their coffers, and allow them to make a decision on where it goes without any representation or say from the people. It's shocking to me, for the size of the UK government and what they plan to do are going to invest nearly 2 billion Euro into this without providing more details on exactly where and how the money is going.

    Realistically, I don't think 2 billion Euro + 6 Billion Euro (from business) is enough for their plans to equalize cybersecurity throughout the EU. So get ready to have your taxes increased to pay for this. Germany, France, The Netherlands... be ready to see most of your EU taxes go towards smaller EU countries which, according to the plan, will need to be funded so the EU isn't so 'fragmented' concerning the cybersecurity industry. Talk about stupid. Probably 60-70% cybersecurity corporations and startups are located in California. There is no need to spend money to startup companies in Alabama, Iowa and Wisconsin.

    Bringing in the US's proposed increase in federal spending on cybersecurity isn't exactly a great comparison to look at. First, it doesn't fund research, development or private industry at all. Second, It doesn't concern building small corporations and balancing where things come from.

    The US typically doesn't fund private industry improvement of cybersecurity. If a company needs to put money into this, it can fund it from profits or sell stock. A lot of congressional representatives were axed during the 2012 elections. Largely due to spending money on bailing out large corporations and banks, while the economy was stagnant and unemployment rising. Nobody helped bail out the citizens.

    So I understand spending money to improve the cybersecurity throughout the EU governments, but not private industry. I don't blame UK for leaving... it was the right thing to do for the people. It also allows them to put money where they want and need to, like military defense... something the EU has allowed to dwindle.

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