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- Trend snippet: EU Member States are progressing at different speeds in building up digital infrastructures, leading to potential vulnerabilities
Trends in Security Information
The HSD Trendmonitor is designed to provide access to relevant content on various subjects in the safety and security domain, to identify relevant developments and to connect knowledge and organisations. The safety and security domain encompasses a vast number of subjects. Four relevant taxonomies (type of threat or opportunity, victim, source of threat and domain of application) have been constructed in order to visualize all of these subjects. The taxonomies and related category descriptions have been carefully composed according to other taxonomies, European and international standards and our own expertise.
In order to identify safety and security related trends, relevant reports and HSD news articles are continuously scanned, analysed and classified by hand according to the four taxonomies. This results in a wide array of observations, which we call ‘Trend Snippets’. Multiple Trend Snippets combined can provide insights into safety and security trends. The size of the circles shows the relative weight of the topic, the filters can be used to further select the most relevant content for you. If you have an addition, question or remark, drop us a line at info@securitydelta.nl.
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EU Member States are progressing at different speeds in building up digital infrastructures, leading to potential vulnerabilities
- States risk ceding control over many areas of finance and the economy to the private companies that dominate the digital space
- The monopoly on data held by third parties will continue to pose increasing risks of manipulation and criminal use of personal information.
- Widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies by legitimate businesses and individuals could have a significant impact.
- As digitalisation increases, so do the challenges from the increasing spread of misinformation, fake news and conspiracy theories. The use of deepfakes will probably become a serious challenge for the digital environment.
DIGITALISATION The EU is on a path towards total digitalisation – a development that will continue at a fast pace with significant impact on society, public administration, transport and trade. The COVID-19 pandemic has further accelerated this phenomenon. Substantial investments in infrastructure will be necessary to complete the transition to the digital era. Currently, Member States are progressing at different speeds in building up digital infrastructures; this may lead to potential vulnerabilities. Government services are increasingly delivered digitally. Member States’ government authorities are likely to increasingly offer services digitally to cut costs and enhance their accessibility. Digitalisation is set to further increase the volume of digital personal data, which is mostly held by private companies. There is a risk that the exponential increase in data will overwhelm governments who are unable to manage, safeguard and effectively use this information. Cybercriminals will launch sophisticated and large-scale attacks against critical infrastructure to access and steal sensitive data. 54 Deepfakes are media in which a person is replaced with someone else’s likeness. Deepfakes leverage powerful techniques from machine learning and AI to manipulate or generate visual and audio content with a high potential to deceive. 55 Forbes 2020, Deepfakes Are Going To Wreak Havoc On Society. We Are Not Prepared [25/05/2020], accessible at https://www.forbes. com/sites/robtoews/2020/05/25/deepfakes-are-going-to-wreak-havoc-on-society-we-are-not-prepared/?sh=5534e7b67494 States risk ceding control over many areas of finance and the economy to the private companies that dominate the digital space. Leading technology companies will entrench their monopoly positions, drawing on financial resources and superior engineering capacities. The monopoly on data held by third parties will continue to pose increasing risks of manipulation and criminal use of personal information. Privacy and the ethical use of data are key topics to be addressed by law enforcement, legislators and policy makers. Widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies by legitimate businesses and individuals could have a significant impact. Law enforcement authorities will need to find new ways to access information on financial transactions between criminals. As digitalisation increases, so do the challenges from the increasing spread of misinformation, fake news and conspiracy theories. The use of deepfakes(54) will probably become a serious challenge for the digital environment(55). Law enforcement authorities have limited powers to counter information manipulation, which can take the form of attempts to distort political discourse, manipulate elections, erode democratic principles, sow distrust in institutions, intensify social divisions, foster insecurity, and spread discrimination and xenophobia.