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Citizens, companies and governments across the European Union agree that everyone should be free to live their lives and use technology without fear that their information will be stolen or held ransom by cybercriminals or other malicious actors.

But with each passing week, cyber threats are growing more costly and more aggressive, undermining the trust essential to a vibrant, inclusive digital society. This is a moment that calls for international leadership, which is why it’s notable that the European Commission has featured security at the center of its vision for digital transformation.

Today, Google is publishing a set of recommendations and white paper supporting the Commission’s efforts, and we commit to extending our full capabilities to help secure Europe’s “digital decade”.

The need

We applaud the European Commission’s effort to meet this moment, and believe that companies should step up to do their part as well.

The stakes have never been clearer. Even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — a ground assault accompanied by an attack on Europe’s cyberspace — there were troubling signs that Europe’s democratic values were being challenged by authoritarian governments.

I spoke about the importance of these values recently at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit. Democracies provide fertile ground for advances in science and technology. Technology owes its success to the conditions — openness, pluralism, free exchange — that democracy creates, enabling inventors to take risks and pursue new avenues for inquiry and collective innovation. So it’s no surprise that Ukraine’s tech sector thrived in recent years under the flag of a free European democracy.

But how can technology, in turn, contribute to the defense of Europe’s digital space? We have been reflecting on lessons we learned the hard way more than a decade ago, and how we used them to create a next-generation security infrastructure.

In the months ahead, we plan to share our experience in proactive digital defense with leaders in Europe. We are keenly aware of our responsibility to support the work of Europe’s democratic governments and institutions on economic progress, national security, and defense of the public square.

Google’s role

Our white paper recommends several areas where the European Union can make progress in securing Europe’s digital space, including:

• Open security: Driving European resilience through “open security,” on the principle that openness and interoperability encourage scrutiny, threat sharing, and rapid adoption of best practices and new technologies.
• Security by default: Promoting systemic investments in digital transformation, zero-trust architectures, and operating systems and devices that are secure by default, helping organizations overcome an overreliance on outdated and hard-to-patch technology infrastructures and devices that lie open to risks of espionage and extortion.
• Partnership: Engaging partners by facilitating public-private threat information exchanges and briefings involving EU policymakers and technical experts — and by increasing dialogue to explore new areas of cooperation, such as applying artificial intelligence to improve security.
• Encryption: Prioritizing strong encryption as superior means of protecting sensitive data compared to data localization requirements, which can have the unintended effect of actually undermining security and resilience.

These recommendations reflect both our decades of security expertise and our deep interest in the EU’s digital defense. Some of our leading security initiatives, and top security researchers, are based in Europe.

At the Google Safety Engineering Centers (GSEC) in Munich and Dublin, Google engineers don’t just talk about digital safety, they build it. And they do so on Europe’s distinctive strengths: respected technical universities, many thousands of Google employees, and top expertise in fields including privacy and computer science.

VirusTotal, a Google team that began as a small Málaga-based startup in 2004 and grew into a European champion before its acquisition by Google in 2012, helps millions in the public sector, commerce and research to understand malware and cybersecurity trends. In 2023, VirusTotal will open a brand new headquarters in the heart of Andalusia’s tech hub.

And, as we announced last week, Mandiant, one of the world’s premier cybersecurity teams, has now joined Google — bringing with it hundreds of industry-leading European experts in the field of threat intelligence and incident response.

These teams and others like them will ensure we’re countering tomorrow’s challenges with tomorrow’s tools. And our commitment to Europe’s digital security will be accompanied by a commitment to collaboration — building on the kind of innovation that has always made democracies stronger than their adversaries.

Have you ever wished you could discover ancient civilizations by immersing yourself in their world? Today, you can unlock the mysteries of the ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica by experiencing them in The Descent of the Serpent, the first platform video game from Google Arts & Culture.

It can be fascinating to learn about these ancient cultures and visit a museum filled with artifacts from their time. To take that experience to a whole new level, this game is designed to immerse you into the world of ancient Mesoamerica. Filled with ancient knowledge and created in partnership with Mexico’s National Museum of Anthropology, The Descent of the Serpent takes players back in time to search for hidden objects in a multi-level maze of jungles, mountains, coasts and caves.

From elaborate costumes and ball games to fascinating mythology and incredible architecture, ancient Mesoamerican culture can be both educational and entertaining to discover. These ancient cultures left behind a great legacy of knowledge and many artifacts once used in rituals, warfare and daily life – some of which are housed in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Today, you can find them scattered throughout the virtual maze in The Descent of the Serpent.

The game involves retrieving the lost objects and returning them to Chichen Itza in time for the solar equinox. That’s when the sun casts a shadow on the carvings in a way that resembles a snake descending the monument’s steps — which inspires the game’s name. As part of the challenge, players are invited to learn surprising, impressive and interesting aspects about ancient Mesoamerican cultures, and face mythological figures who’ll test the knowledge they’ve collected throughout the adventure.

The Descent of the Serpent is a game for players of all ages to enjoy, learn from, and return to often to beat their high score again and again — if they dare. Play it for yourself at goo.gle/serpent, or in the Google Arts & Culture iOS or Android app, and use emojis to learn more about ancient Mesoamerica. Have fun!

Before joining Google, Alejandra Brambila worked at Reuters helping publishers across Latin America integrate the news agency’s reporting into their publications. Working with newsrooms across the region, she saw first-hand the challenges they faced in building a sustainable news business. Now she applies that insight as a member of Google’s Latin America news partnerships team, working closely with publishers to help them grow and scale their digital operations. We talked to her about the importance of balance and why everything starts with the audience.

What did you do before you came to Google?

I worked with a large news agency that has a subscription service publishers use to supplement their coverage. They have reporters all over the world, so it’s really helpful for publishers who might not have global correspondents. In my time there I worked closely with all kinds of publishers, from very traditional outlets to newer digital natives and startups.

What’s your role now?

I work with a team that provides solutions for a range of publishers across Latin America. We work with partners on growing their businesses and navigating change in the industry, and we also help them get the most out of Google’s advertising and monetization products.

What’s most challenging for publishers in the region?

From a business perspective, some of the biggest challenges are in technology and

digital transformation. Many of the media companies in this region weren’t built with tech at their core. So they’ve been adapting, but they don’t necessarily have technology strategy integrated into the decision-making process at the highest levels. In part, that leads to executional issues, but it’s also about shifting mindset.

What are some of those executional challenges?

There’s a real problem in the region with finding and retaining tech talent. I see it constantly with my partners in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico – that technology talent turns over really fast. So sometimes you have leadership knowing they need to make changes and being really eager to do it, but they don’t have the structure in place to make it happen.

We always encourage partners to be realistic and start with changes they know they can execute. It’s also about having that product mindset, where you’re always thinking about improvements you can make on an ongoing basis, rather than just one-off changes.

Can you explain what you mean about transformation in general requiring a mindset shift?

For a lot of these companies, they’ve been through a lot of transition. First they had to adapt to digital advertising. Now many of them are trying to focus more on digital subscriptions, but it feels very disruptive and risky.

How do you address those kinds of concerns?

It’s really about finding that balance between advertising and subscriptions. And the publishers that have been able to do that have built a strong brand in addition to having a technology vision. It’s not enough to have a large audience. You need loyal readers coming back to your site. You also have to have the right technology in place. For example, since in Latin America we don’t have the fastest devices or internet connections, content needs to be light and fast loading to maximize your ad revenue. So you need a good CMS that loads faster and indexes better.

But the businesses I see that are thriving have focused on building that audience connection, whether by having high standards for journalism or serving their community in different ways, like with events.

What other encouraging developments do you see in terms of business models?

I see more media finding different ways to reach their audiences, for example, through new verticals like education or cooking or health. There are also startups and entrepreneurs using different platforms like Substack and, of course, podcasts.

We’re also seeing more partners focused on strengthening their technology talent and their product teams. They’re working on applying that product approach and putting structures and frameworks in place to iterate and experiment. All of those things are starting to move in the right direction and that’s encouraging to see.