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WithSecure Corporation

WithSecure

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Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Aura Salla (Member of the European Parliament)

13 Jan 2026 · Cybersecurity, technology

Meeting with Aura Salla (Member of the European Parliament)

9 Oct 2024 · Competitiveness and future of European information security

Meeting with Timo Pesonen (Director-General Defence Industry and Space)

8 Oct 2021 · Meeting to discuss on cyber security, cyber resilience act and EDF.

Response to Requirements for Artificial Intelligence

10 Sept 2020

F-Secure is very happy to see the discussion on ethical and legal requirements of AI progressing, as this is an important topic and a core part of the EU position towards AI. One fundamental aspect we fully agree with is having EU level approach instead of country-specific ones. We are happy to participate in the discussions and provide our expertise in preparing next steps and possible policy and legislative initiatives. Even though AI has gotten a lot of public attention lately, the technologies themselves are not that new – AI and machine learning have been around for decades, and also the commercial use of AI has been active for years. It is also important to remember that current AI is not general AI but still – even if very impressive – very narrow. Current AI can be used for multiple purposes but still fundamentally does what it is set to do as opposed to having intent of its own. We should consider AI together with other software, automation and data processing technologies as it is a very similar technological enabler. As such, a very important consideration is whether AI specific regulation is an approach that should be taken and if so, to what extent. As stated, there are several existing frameworks that (partially) apply, and we support augmenting those, also because finding a holistic definition of AI that is neither too narrow or too broad is very difficult. We would however challenge the logic that regulation consistently increases trust and with increased obligations benefits also increase. Regulation increases cost, but the link to increased benefits is not as obvious and may not realize to even near the expected extent – in fact regulation may at worst be mostly a cost for development, and if applicable to EU players primarily, it may severely hamper European competitiveness – a risk that must not be taken lightly. AI technologies already provide significant benefits in multiple industries without excessive regulation. There are cases where regulation can be beneficial, e.g. in medical applications, but it should not be generalized too widely – also a reason for avoiding too broad AI specific regulation. A note on the energy impacts; even though the most prominent methods today are based on complex deep learning networks and are computationally very expensive, that is not the case for all AI. Actually, more efficient AI is one area where we see research focus should be directed to as that could make a huge impact also for the future development of AI. Some high-risk applications may need strict regulation, but there is a significant challenge in defining those. The application depends on the domain, but even more on the use case and the data - making the right level of granularity challenging. E.g. there are HR related AI applications which can be high risk for discrimination – but a chatbot assistant that answers questions on open positions would hardly be one. If employed, great care must be taken and a very accurate and detailed description of high-risk applications is needed. That said, a very detailed description leaves the opportunity to circumvent the regulation and limit its effectiveness – a difficult problem to solve. To encourage wide development and adaption of AI, as well as the growth in SMEs, as high regulatory requirements will favor large organizations with capability to address them, we recommend to have as little AI specific regulation as possible and even if such is needed, voluntary labeling and soft law would be preferred. The use of data and AI is the future and will bring immense value to those who embrace it. We do need to protect individuals and human rights, but as we live in a global economy we should take extra care to allow European development to be in the forefront and avoid hindering advances and new solutions unnecessarily. It is a balance that is not easy to strike, but getting it right is absolutely vital for our future.
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Meeting with Roberto Viola (Director-General Communications Networks, Content and Technology)

14 May 2020 · (virtual) Cybersecurity in Europe

Meeting with Anthony Whelan (Cabinet of President Ursula von der Leyen)

3 Mar 2020 · new digital and data strategies, AI white paper, industry strategy

Meeting with Alejandro Cainzos (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager)

18 Feb 2020 · Cybersecurity & digital policy

Meeting with Antti Timonen (Cabinet of Vice-President Jyrki Katainen)

16 Oct 2019 · Cybersecurity, European political situation

Meeting with Antti Timonen (Cabinet of Vice-President Jyrki Katainen)

29 Jan 2019 · European elections

Meeting with Risto Artjoki (Cabinet of Vice-President Jyrki Katainen)

20 Nov 2018 · Artificial Intelligence

Meeting with Juhan Lepassaar (Cabinet of Vice-President Andrus Ansip), Vivian Loonela (Cabinet of Vice-President Andrus Ansip)

20 Mar 2018 · Cyber security

Meeting with James Morrison (Cabinet of Commissioner Julian King)

20 Mar 2018 · Cybersecurity

Meeting with Jyrki Katainen (Vice-President)

19 Mar 2018 · Cyber threats, dual use products; and Artificial Intelligence