Political and industry leaders will debate the digital
future of Europe and the role of cybersecurity in enabling business continuity
and consumer trust
Prague / Brussels, November 24, 2016 – What does the
digital future of Europe look like? Political and industry leaders from top
companies will be discussing this at this year’s Think Digital summit on the 29th
of November in Brussels. Vince Steckler, CEO of Avast Software, the leader in
digital security products for business and consumers, will be participating in
the panel discussion “Cyber Space and Security for Businesses”. He will also
participate in DIGITEC 2016: Digital Future, the inaugural event from the IT
Departments of the European Commission and the European Parliament, where the
panel will discuss “Encryption: blessing or curse for IT security”.
The conferences are
taking place at a time when security is very much in the mind of consumers and
businesses further to a number of high profile hacks on companies including
Yahoo!, and LinkedIn. On the back of these events, Avast carried out a survey
with 1,000 respondents in the UK this summer to gauge people’s thoughts on the
safety and privacy of their online data:
- Banks (66%) and
businesses (73%) were seen as having more responsibility than the government
for keeping their customers’ private data safe.
- However, only four in
ten think thought that businesses demonstrated sufficient responsibility.
- Personal ID data (83%)
and financial data (74%) are the two categories that people are most concerned
about being collected by businesses and the government.
- Two thirds of people said
they are worried that their data is being shared without their knowledge.
Vince Steckler, CEO at
Avast Software, said, “Today, everything is smart: smart phones, watches,
thermostats, and TVs are established in our homes and businesses, and they
transformed our personal and work lives into digital environments. As the
‘real’ world increasingly merges with a digital world, cybercriminals take
advantage of it to exploit new ways of making money, such as stealing personal
and business data, gaining access to people’s bank accounts, harvesting and
selling personal information, and demanding ransoms in return for valuable data.”
“We as a security
company are working to be one step ahead of the bad guys to protect consumers
and businesses, and strive to educate the society about new risks and threats
in today’s digital world. Beyond this, we recognize that we will be more
successful if we can engage with industry to do the same and work with us to
establish the technology and policy-based safeguards that are necessary to
protect our society as a whole.”
Notes to editors:
- The “Think
Digital: Shaping the Digital Future of Europe” conference will take place on
the 29th of November, 2016, at the Egmont Palace in Brussels. The
panel discussion “Cyberspace and security for businesses” panel will take place
at 10:45 am. More information can be found on: https://www.digimedia.be/thinkdigital/index.
- DIGITEC 2016: Digital Future
will take place on 29th November, 2016, in the Brussels Meeting
Centre. The conference will be web streamed for external audiences on the
official DIGITEC website; it will also be covered with #digitconf16 on Twitter and EP Technology Facebook page.
