Avast CEO Vince Steckler to speak at EU summits ‘Think Digital’ and ‘DIGITEC’

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 29^th 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 29^th 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 29^th 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.