The newly-created European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO) has appointed Telefónica as the sole telco member of its board of directors.
Brussels wants to strengthen cooperation among member states and cyber security organisations to develop new policies and technologies.
As part of its strategy, the European Commission and ECSO signed a contractual public-private partnership (cPPP) last month to trigger investment of up to €1.8 billion through to 2020 in different lines of research into cyber security. Telefónica also joins this partnership board.
Pedro Pérez, MD of Global Security at Telefónica, and CEO of its ElevenPaths cyber security division, said: “We have to move on from isolated security solutions focused on asset protection to solutions capable of analysing the information of devices, networks, technological equipment and users, combining it with external intelligence on vulnerabilities, threats and other agents.”
He added: “Trust between industry and the public administrations of the member States is essential for the effective implementation of this approach and, in this sense, the role to be played by the cPPP is vital.”
Pérez and Cristina Vela, senior advisor at the Telefónica office in Brussels, will represent the company on the ECSO board.
Telefónica has been involved in several cyber security initiatives as part of the EC’s Horizon 2020 programme. It is also involved in other cyber security projects within organisations such as the Internet Engineering Task Force, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute and the GSMA.