Think tank proposes cybersecurity university

The EU should set up a university focused on cybersecurity to help it plug the gaps in its online defences, the think tank of the European People’s Party group has said.

This university should be able to attract and develop people with the cybersecurity skills that Europe is lacking, according to a paper published by the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies on 31 August. These include “cyber-military skills”, as well as data science, artificial intelligence and robotics skills, it said.

The paper quoted Vannevar Bush, the head of the United States Office of Scientific Research and Development during the second world war, to stress the importance of research to security efforts. “It’s clear beyond all doubt that basic science—discovering the fundamentals of computer science, among others—is absolutely essential to national security,” it quoted him as saying.