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<span style="font-size:9pt">3</span>
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European Regional Bureau Newsletter: 11 August – 18 August 2017
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<span style="font-family:'Hind Light';color:#3a82e4">Internet Access</span>
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<span style="font-weight:bold;font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">UK: Mayor of London announced plans to boost digital connectivity</span>
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<span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">On August 10, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan</span> <a href="https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/mayor-launches-plans-to-tackle-londons-not-spots"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">announced</span></a><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'"> plans to tackle London's connectivity “not-spots” and to deliver connectivity in the city underground.</span> <span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">A City Hall summit – the Digital Connectivity Funding Forum – will be organised to gather local authorities and encourage them to apply for the Government’s Digital Infrastructure Funding.</span> <span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">The Mayor stated Londoners and businesses “need fast and reliable digital connections in order to remain competitive in the global economy.”</span> <p style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-weight:bold;font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">EU: Commission approved German aid scheme to support high speed Internet solutions for rural areas</span>
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<span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">On August 11, the European Commission approved a €3 billion government funded broadband service programme for rural areas in Germany, saying it does not break state aid competition rules. The Commission has thus</span> <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-17-2502_en.htm"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">approved</span></a><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'"> the three virtual unbundled local access (VULA) products proposed by Deutsche Telekom, DNS:Net and NetCologne, allowing for the use of vectoring technology in state-funded high speed broadband networks across the country.</span> <span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">In 2015, the Commission approved the</span> <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-5186_en.htm"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">state aid broadband programme</span></a><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'"> aimed at boosting investments in high speed broadband infrastructures in the country using vectoring technology, on the condition that Germany offered VULA products “to replace the physical access lost caused by the use of vectoring technology.”</span> <span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">Vectoring technology increases broadband speed over existing copper network compared to levels normally achieved via very high speed digital subscriber lines (VDSL). However, competitors could potentially no longer be able to have access to individual copper lines. The introduction of VULA can compensate the side effects of vectoring technology and ensure open access to the network.</span> <p style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-weight:bold;font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">EU: Digital Commissioner answers parliamentary question on WiFi4EU initiative</span>
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<span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">Answering a</span> <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=WQ&reference=E-2017-003683&language=EN"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">parliamentary written question</span></a><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">, the European Commissioner in charge of the Digital agenda Mariya Gabriel</span> <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getAllAnswers.do?reference=E-2017-003683&language=EN"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">said</span></a><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'"> on August 17 that free wireless connectivity provided in public areas, the</span> <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/policies/wifi4eu-free-wi-fi-europeans"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">WiFi4EU</span></a><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'"> scheme, “contributes to bridging the digital divide.”</span> <span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">Commissioner Gabriel also specified that the initiative will “exclude projects that duplicate already existing private or public offers with similar characteristics (including quality of service) in the same area.” This will ensure that free wireless connectivity will be provided to the most remote regions and rural areas in Europe.</span> <span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">The budget of the WiFi4EU is €120 million for the next two years to support the installation of Wi-Fi in the centres of community life across the EU.</span> <p style="text-align:justify;margin-bottom:10.000000pt">
<span style="font-family:'Hind Light';color:#3a82e4">Trust</span>
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<span style="font-weight:bold;font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">UK: MI5 former head warns against crackdown on encrypted messaging apps</span>
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<span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">During an interview given to</span> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08zzlxp"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">BBC Radio 4</span></a><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">, the former chief of the British intelligence service, Jonathan Evans, declared he “would not support a clampdown on use of encryption” in the fight against terrorism. Mr Evans stressed the importance of implementing measures to strengthen cybersecurity without weakening encryption.</span> <span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">His comments came after Home Secretary Amber Rudd</span> <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/31/dont-want-ban-encryption-inability-see-terrorists-plotting-online/"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">recently claimed</span></a><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'"> that "real people do not need end-to-end encryption in messaging apps”.</span> <p style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-weight:bold;font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">Scotland: Scottish Parliament hit by prolonged “brute-force” cyberattack</span>
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<span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">On August 15, the Scottish Parliament was targeted by a brute-force cyberattack (i.e. involving hackers repeatedly attempting to crack passwords) aimed at users’ e-mail accounts, similar to that which hit Westminster in June this year.</span> <a name="_Hlk490837074">
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<span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">According to Clerk and Chief Executive of the Scottish Parliament Sir Paul Grice, cyber defence was strengthened and the assault has not breached the Parliament’s IT systems.</span> <span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">The Parliament’s Business Information Technology Office has been working with the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre to implement additional cybersecurity measures and understand the origin of the attack.</span> <p style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-weight:bold;font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">UK: Cybersecurity sectoral analysis survey open until the end of August</span>
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<span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">On August 15, the UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) launched an</span> <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/uk-cyber-security-sectoral-analysis-survey"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">open consultation</span></a><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'"> to collect data on the country’s cybersecurity industry.</span> <span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">The DCMS commissioned RSM’s Economic Consulting team (PACEC) and the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) at Queen’s University Belfast, to provide statistics about the sector’s size, scale and future opportunities.</span> <span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">The results of the consultation will help the Government to better understand how to support the sector’s growth.</span> <span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">The survey is open until August 31.</span> <p style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-weight:bold;font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">EU: business organisations call for effective cybersecurity rules</span>
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<span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">Ahead of the EU Cybersecurity Strategy review (expected in September 2017), numerous chambers of commerce and business associations called on the European Commission to develop effective rules “to raise cyber defences and realise the potential of the Internet of Things (IoT).”</span> <span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">In a</span> <a href="https://www.uschamber.com/file/20585/download"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">joint</span> <a name="_GoBack">
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<span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">letter</span></a><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'"> sent to European Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip and Digital Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, the organisations propose to focus on six “principles”. These include the need to “resist the urge to regulate the IoT prematurely”; to develop globally recognised standards and best practices; and to introduce an EU “trust label”.</span> <span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">The business groups also suggest to facilitate cyber information sharing and increase awareness on cybersecurity among the public.</span> <span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">Among others, the signatories include the US Chamber of Commerce, the confederations of industry of both Denmark and the Czech Republic, and EurElectric, the sector association which represents the common interests of the electricity industry at a European level.</span> <p style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-weight:bold;font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">UK: NHS Digital and Microsoft signed cybersecurity deal</span>
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<span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">NHS Digital, the UK National Health Service’s provider of information, data and IT systems, signed a custom support</span> <a href="https://www.digitalhealth.net/2017/08/microsoft-and-nhs-digital-sign-new-agreement-for-cybersecurity/"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">agreement</span></a><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'"> with Microsoft in an effort to improve its cybersecurity capability.</span> <span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">From now until mid-2018, Microsoft will provide for the detection of cyber threats that target IT devices relying on outdated operating systems. All existing Windows devices operating on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and SQL 2005 will thus be updated by the end of the agreement.</span> <span></span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">The deal comes three months after</span> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/live/2017/may/12/england-hospitals-cyber-attack-nhs-live-updates"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">numerous UK hospitals</span></a><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'"> were hit by the WannaCry malware attack as part of the</span> <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-responds-on-cyber-security-and-data"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'">government’s plan</span></a><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:'Hind Light'"> to bolster cybersecurity within the NHS.</span> <p class="header" style="text-align:right" awml:style="header">
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