In the framework of EU-US Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial held in Gödöllo (Hungary), Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice President for the Digital Agenda, EU Home Affairs Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, and Secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano agreed to strengthen trans-Atlantic cooperation in cyber-security by defining the issues to be tackled by the EU-US Working Group on Cyber-Security and Cyber-Crime.

This Working Group on Cyber-security and Cyber-crime is tasked with developing collaborative approaches to a wide range of cyber-security and cyber-crime issues. It works on the following aspects:

• cooperation programme culminating in a joint EU-US cyber-incident exercise by the end of 2011
• a broad commitment to engage the private sector, sharing of good practices on collaboration with industry, and pursuing specific engagement on key issue areas, enhancing the resilience and stability of the Internet
• a programme of immediate joint awareness raising activities, sharing messages and models across the Atlantic, as well as a roadmap towards synchronised annual awareness efforts and a conference on child protection online in Silicon Valley by end 2011
• continuing EU/US cooperation to remove child pornography from the Internet
• advancing the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime, including a programme to expand accession by all EU Member States, and collaboration to assist states outside the region in meeting its standards and become parties.

The EU-US Working Group on Cyber-security and Cyber-crime was established in the context of the EU-US Summit of 20 November 2010 held in Lisbon with the aim to tackle new threats to the global networks upon which the security and prosperity of our free societies increasingly depend.