New EU cyber regulation ‘will likely result in less security’

Under eIDAS, which is due to become European law imminently but which would then need to be transposed into each individual member state’s national law, individual governments will be able to dictate what certificates browsers must accept and whether or not they can perform transparency checks regarding those verifications in order to detect any bad faith actions. File picture

A new EU regulation which could make it easier for governments to monitor internet traffic has been sharply criticised by hundreds of academics as it “substantially increases the potential for harm”.

The eIDAS regulation (Electronic Identification and Trust Services), which has been agreed on a technical level by representatives from the European Parliament, Council, and Commission, serves to alter how web browsers verify the identity and safety status of individual websites.