Tech-based Threats

Highly advanced infrastructure in industrialized nations has traditionally been viewed as a blessing for citizens. But there's also a downside to the complex nature of the digital age.

It's feared that high-tech operation systems, such as electricity grids, may increasingly become the target of terrorists. They know like anyone else that even the slightest failure in parts of a given network may cripple the entire system.

Scientists and politicians from the European Union are currently meeting in Berlin to debate ways of minimizing the threats involved on relying so heavily on computer-based systems. Participants at the two-day European Conference on Security Research agreed that systems have to be better protected against possible criminal attacks or natural disasters.

According to EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini, it would be irresponsible to just sit back and hope that nothing bad will happen.

"Terrorists and international criminals care nothing about national borders," Frattini said. "They will attack whenever and wherever they feel they will obtain the maximum result, unfortunately."

Frattini said that was why the EU must respond by welcoming new technology.

"Governments and law enforcing agencies must use technology to better protect citizens' security," Frattini said. "Our response must be as sophisticated as the criminal's."

"The fight against crime is like the fight against bacteria."

The European Union has made the development of security technologies a priority in the years ahead. Between 2007 and 2013, a total of 1.4 billion euros ($1.8 billion) have been earmarked for security research throughout the bloc.

Jerzy Buzek from the European Parliament said this is money well spent. He said it was impossible to effectively combat corruption and organized crime without the support of highly-advanced technologies

"The fight against crime is like the fight against bacteria in medicine," Buzek said. "The pharmaceutical industry develops the newest generation of antibiotics, but bacteria adapt and become immune. If we want to win against crime, the problem lies not only in advanced technology, but first of all, in innovative thinking."

Government and industry have to work together

The innovative thinking Buzek referred to needs to be put in the context of cross-border co-operation among the EU's 27 member states. Only open dialogue would achieve a joint security architecture, said Germany's Education and Research Minister Annette Schavan.

"In view of the peculiarities of security research, what Europe needs is a long-term strategic platform which will shape the transfer of knowledge from research to application as effectively as possible," Schavan said. "There has to be a joint analysis of potential threats and joint answers."

Some 80 percent of all security-relevant infrastructure is in private ownership in Germany, Schavan said. Governments and industry leaders had therefore agreed to increase their co-operation in special research consortiums, such as a "European Security Research and Innovation Forum."

"The central objective of the security forum is to develop strategic innovation partnerships with users and suppliers -- that is to say, alliances between research, science, industry, operators of security-relevant infrastructures and authorities which are responsible for security in the member states and the EU," Schavan said.

At present, there are several hundred different projects in the EU all geared to making societies more secure with the help of new technologies.