“Since the recent attack on the TV5Monde television channel we have heard a lot about cyberterrorism. Are the risks serious, and is there a European policy to deal with it?” asks Marta from Brussels.

Cyber security expert Nicholas Arpagian attempts to reply.

“The very principle of terrorism is to install a climate of fear in its enemy. Cyber attacks can create a general feeling of insecurity as so many organisations are computer-reliant, from transport to banking systems to industrial processes and even into our personal and professional lives, that major malfunctions can be created.

States are still unwilling to co-operate intensively enough; that’s why we don’t yet have an international cybersecurity or cyberdefence law. There is only a 2001 Council of Europe convention linked specifically to the fight against child pornography.

Until now we’ve mostly seen joint operations with states co-operating through Interpol and Europol with police forces. But there’s been no real w