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According to the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), European member states urgently need to upgrade their digital security, and are not currently doing enough to protect against wide scale cyber-attacks or spam, which costs European companies over 60 billion euros per year.

In recent years computer-based attacks on governments have become increasingly common, with <

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MI5 warning of the threat posed by Chinese attackers and hackers stealing sensitive data from the Pentagon.

ENISA claims that legally obliging companies to report data breaches and security threats is just one measure that will tighten security, although a more unified approach across all member states will also be needed, it claims.

"Europe must take security threats more seriously and invest more resources," says Andrea Pirotti, the executive director of ENISA. "ENISA calls for the EU to introduce mandatory reporting on security breaches and incidents for business, as the US has already done."

According to the group, nearly one third of global trade now depends on digital communications, which means that protecting computer systems has never been more important.

ENISA has recently launched a project which will run for the next three years, aimed at improving the security of e-communications.