ABSTRACT
All civilian and military activities have become highly dependent on cyberspace. This creates new vulnerabilities both to accidents and intentional threats. Malevolent individuals and organisations may, without any physical presence, infiltrate all possible networks, including the most sensitive ones. Every individual as well as governmental, non-governmental and business organisation may be targeted. Hence the growing concern for cyber security, which reflects the changes taking place in approaches of security, from the security of nations and territories to the security of individuals and communities. Representing a fundamental assault on human rights, among which privacy and property, cyber attacks have the potential to manipulate the course of the democratic process, hence jeopardising the very existence of democracy. After some examination of the content and actors of cybersecurity and their links to civil society and human security, the chapter focuses on EU policies in this field and their specificities. It ends by identifying a distinctive EU approach to cybersecurity, which rejects the kind of technological determinism and mass surveillance that characterise the approaches of other key actors.
