European Union telecoms ministers agreed on Thursday to extend the life of the bloc’s Internet security watchdog by three years as threats to the Web increase. The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), a small body set up in 2004, was due to be closed down next year. But rising cyber-crime and attacks such as one suffered by EU member Estonia last year has triggered a rethink. The bloc’s 27 telecoms industry ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, agreed a three-year reprieve until 2012 to give time to decide how to take Greek-based ENISA forward. The European Parliament is set to formally endorse the move next week. ENISA’s executive director, Andrea Pirotti, said network security was crucial for the European economy, which increasingly depends on a trouble-free Internet. “The need for secure networks, systems and services will certainly not suddenly disappear in 2012,” Pirotti said in a statement. “Network and information security touches business and the daily lives of citizens in Europe. It consequently needs constant reinforcement to keep up with the evolving threats landscape,” Pirotti said. With an annual budget of 8 million euros and fewer than 50 staff, ENISA had no remit or resources to deal with cyber attacks like that experienced by Estonia last year, when the Baltic state accused Russia of causing government websites to crash.

Hackers have breached security at a clothing company’s website and stolen the credit card details of an estimated 38,000 customers.

Cotton Traders said industry experts were called in as soon as the breach was discovered and insisted its website met appropriate security standards.

The company could not confirm how many of its customers were targeted in the January attack, but said the figure of 38,000 was “widely inaccurate”.

In a statement, it said: “In January 2008 we identified a security issue.

“We immediately brought in industry security experts to resolve the problem.

“We can confirm that our customer credit card data is encrypted on our website but if any of our customers have been a victim of fraud, they should contact their card issuer.”

Cotton Traders was founded in 1987 by two former England rugby union captains, Fran Cotton and Steve Smith.

It began by selling rugby shirts from a single room in Altrincham and grew into a £50 million business with more than 700 employees in the UK, sending out over 100,000 parcels a month.

There are now more than two million customers on the company’s database.

The statement continued: “We can confirm that the figure of 38,000 as reported by BBC is widely inaccurate and we would like to reassure all our customers that their data is secure and that the Cotton Traders website meets all leading industry security standards