In a letter to the Dutch government, a group of cybersecurity scientists requested that the raw data about data breaches from the Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) must be made available for scientific research. Bernold Nieuwesteeg, Director of the Center for Law and Economics of Cyber Security at Erasmus School of Law, is one of the undersigned.
In the Netherlands, many companies report data breaches. However, the AP hardly ever reacts to these reported breaches and leaves the data in the digital desk drawer. This while the data is a potential gold mine for research and improvements in cybersecurity policy.
Insight as a weapon against future data breaches
The processing of data about data breaches is done much better in the United States. There, a cybersecurity dashboard is used in which data breaches are systematically tracked. This data is valuable to researchers. In this way, they can gain insight into this form of cybercrime, which can lead to policy solutions and a decrease in the number of data breaches.
In an open letter, a group of researchers, including Nieuwesteeg, calls on the Dutch government to introduce a similar cybersecurity dashboard. In particular, the Ministry of Justice and Security is requested to provide the AP with the necessary financial resources to make the raw data about data breaches available for research.
“By using a cybersecurity dashboard, we can have a structurally better view of developments related to cybercrime and cybersecurity and make the Netherlands safer at an acceptable cost”, according to Nieuwesteeg.