Attacks targeting critical infrastructure are among the biggest cybersecurity threats, Ionuț Stoica, program officer at the European Cyber Security Competence Center (ECCC), told a specialized conference on Tuesday.
„I would start a little bit from the threat side, because we have many institutions both on the cybercrime side and on the cybersecurity side. We have regulations, European directives, conventions, but we need to understand why it is necessary to have all these measures, why it is necessary to have all these bodies operating either on the cybersecurity side or on the cybercrime side. Among the biggest threats on the cybersecurity side, we can talk about these attacks targeting critical infrastructure. We are seeing more and more power grid cases, we are seeing ransomware attacks targeting hospitals and DDoS attacks targeting the websites of major state institutions. In addition to the other attacks directly targeting EU citizens, we can also talk about online fraud involving electronic payment and other types of attacks”, stressed Stoica, according to Agerpres.
According to the specialist, by understanding what the risks are, „we can talk about the mechanisms that exist in terms of mitigating these risks”.
„On the one hand, on the legislative side we have, at the European Union level, these European Directives - NIS1 and NIS2, we have the „Cyber Resilience Act” and other such Regulations that impose some minimum but mandatory rules. In terms of cybersecurity, however, it is not enough just to have these mechanisms and these rules. We need to help those involved in implementing these measures to carry them through to a successful conclusion. This is where I would like to clarify the role of the European Cyber Security Competence Center. The role is to support the actors involved in cybersecurity to implement the necessary measures so as to ensure this cyber resilience that we are talking about and through the projects funded by the Cybersecurity Office. We currently have more than 200 projects being funded, totaling more than EUR 600 million, targeting, on the one hand, small and medium-sized enterprises which must implement measures to comply with these European Directives in order to have these standards laid down in the Cyber Resilience Act”said the official.
The ECCC specialist also mentioned that, through a specialized platform, business communities and beyond can exchange experiences and best practices in the area of cybersecurity.
„We have a platform called Atlas. Through this platform we are trying to create real communities in the cyber area to exchange best practices, experiences and to further help implement the necessary measures. We cannot create these communities on our own and that is why they are realized with the help of National Cybersecurity Centers. So, in every EU Member State we have these National Centers through which we manage to reach out to stakeholders and create these much needed communities. I would say we are only strong if we work together. That is why we need these communities, we need coordination and cooperation”said Ionuț Stoica.
Confindustria Romania and the Romanian Federation of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (FPIAR) organized, on Tuesday, the event „Cybersecurity, Technical and Legal Aspects: Two Sides of the Same Coin”.