Europe must rethink security as Big Tech power grows, EU’s Ribera says

LISBON, Nov 9 (Reuters) – The European Union must rethink security to take into account challenges and risks posed by the growing power of major technology companies that go beyond traditional competition concerns, European Commission Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera said on Monday.

“We need to review and to deepen our concept of security, including cybersecurity,” Ribera told reporters in Lisbon, arguing that testing and monitoring devices connected to critical infrastructure was no longer sufficient and that security means also ensuring that the Big Tech companies are “governed by democratic and transparent patterns”.

“We need to be quite quick in the deployment of these new approaches … This is one of the most critical topics for security, for democracy, and for (our) values”, she said. 

Ribera cited recent cyberattacks in Europe that caused refrigerators to overheat, disrupted transport services and interfered with electoral processes, including in Moldova, but declined to specifically comment on recent security-related cases involving Nvidia and OpenAI.

Nvidia is investigating allegations that Chief Executive Jensen Huang was targeted by a foreign intelligence effort linked to China, while US authorities have arrested a former OpenAI engineer on espionage-related allegations.

(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; editing by Andrei Khalip)