The European Commission has put together a fund that will give money to private groups working on cybersecurity.

It was created as a partnership between the Commission, research centres, and administrations across the continent.

After setting up the European Cyber Security Organisation, the partnership will now supply money to universities, companies, and others who specialise in working on cybersecurity.

€450 million is initially being invested by EU member states to the fund, but that could reach €1.8 billion by 2020.

The fund will go towards groups working on the growing threats in cybersecurity, such as identity theft online and attacks on cloud storage services.

The Commission is also looking at putting a certification program into place for the cybersecurity market.

This means that any product or service involved with cybersecurity would have to be certified to sell in the European Union. Once certified, the product or service would then be available in any EU member state.