Problem: Respond to:
The United States and the European Union (EU) clearly have different priorities and focuses when it comes to threat vectors. Looking at the EU's and the United States' threat assessments, there are some clear differences. The United States has an obvious focus on terrorism and external threats, while the EU, in its threat assessment, barely touches directly on the topic of terrorism and focuses more on forms of trafficking when it comes to non-cybercrimes.
Looking directly at cybercrimes in 2013, the EU emphasized that cybercrimes will most likely increase due to the internet becoming more and more a part of everyday life (Europol 2013). In Europol's 2025 threat assessment, cyber-attacks have moved up in precedence as a high-priority threat due to targeting of critical infrastructure, governments, and businesses (Europol 2025). What Europol is seeing is that cyber-attacks are becoming more state-aligned and ideologically focused rather than financially focused and independently conducted. Another concern Europol expresses is the increased involvement of artificial intelligence (AI) and how this will complicate the threat of cyber-attacks.
In 2025, the Homeland Threat Assessment put out by the Department of Homeland Security, the United States expresses many of the same concerns when it comes to cyber-attacks as Europol. The United States, like Europol, is most concerned with cyber-attacks that are directly state-aligned. However, the United States directly calls out specific nations that are targeting its infrastructure through cyber-attacks, such as Russia, China, and North Korea (Department of Homeland Security 2025). What differs between the US and EU assessments is that in the US assessment, there is still emphasis on financial cybercrimes, particularly through the use of ransomware (Department of Homeland Security 2025). Another difference is that the US puts AI in a threat category of its own rather than including it with cyberattacks. This indicates that the US sees AI as an issue and threat beyond its involvement in cyber-attacks. In general, the EU and the US have similar threat focuses; the main differences lie in what they consider to be a greater or lesser threat. Need Assignment Help?