ROME- A conference was held at the Senate of the Republic entitled “Cyber Security Italy Foundation: Synergetic actions between companies and institutions, talent attractions and skills to overcome the cyber challenge”.
Among the central topics the talent attraction, internalization, skills development, public- private partnership, the collaboration between nations, the security of the critical infrastructures.
The work was coordinated by the director of the technical-scientific board of Cyber Security Italy Foundation, Angelo Tofalo, currently undersecretary of Defence, and during the initiative spoke members of TSB Cyber Noemi Ferrari, Simone Pezzoli, Tiziano Li Piani e Matteo Macina.
In a message sent to the congress, the undersecretary of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers Alfredo Mantovano, called for the initiative “to be a productive moment on reflecting on the upcoming challenges in the next few years, to combine the necessity to continue the path towards a growing digitalization with the demand to protect our strategical assets, our economic competitiveness and our national security from cyber threats”.
“Projects and ideas to overcome the cybersecurity challenge” was promoted by Cyber Security Italy Foundation, the first non-profit foundation in Italy of the third sector in the cyber world directed by Marco Gabriele Proietti on the initiative of the senator Marco Silvestroni.
The senator Marco Silvestroni emphasized the importance “of such initiatives organized by institutions like Cyber Security Italy Foundation to spread the cyber culture and cybersecurity between companies and citizens and to give our nation the cultural instruments and technical skills useful to the upcoming challenge, considering how vital have the cyber domain and the use of technology become in our civil society”.
“A non-natural domain- he added- but already populated with interests, institutions of law, citizens, customers, and companies. Matters of interests’ preservation, even the national ones require vigilance, the presence of the Government on behalf of the public institution. In order to perform such tasks, we need specific professional skills, extensive skills and a deep knowledge of the digital environment.
“NATO has defined the cyberspace as the fifth domain, I would define it as a super- domain because it pervades all the other sectors- has explained in his speech, Matteo Perego di Cremnago, undersecretary of the Defence, representing the Government-. Europe moved to a more holistic approach in the Cyber field an also the synergy with NATO is strong. A system between Institutions and companies has to be established. It’s clear that technology is an enabling factor, but those who always make a difference are people: our ability to attract talents is going to be the key to success which represents the present and the future of our Country.”
“Finally, we talk about skills on these topics again- Alessandro Colucci, secretary of Presidency of the Chamber of Deputies, promotor, and president of Intergroup for Cyber and Technological Security—Thanks to the Intergroup, which was immediately joined by plenty of parliament colleagues, we will be able to give concreteness and answers to Italians regarding the digital challenges. In order to do this, I asked the Foundation some technical-scientific support. We must support the Government in this path, intervening with the tools at the disposal of the Parliament, this is to say also with legislative initiatives in such a crucial domain for our nation. The first congress of the Intergroup will take place on the 12th of April 2024”.
Laura Carpini, Head of Unit for the Policies and cyber space security of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation- has analysed the international affairs dimension instead-. The role of the diplomacy must be strengthened. It represents a cross -cutting element of the four pillars of the National Cybersecurity Strategy: resilience, defence, intelligence, cybercrime fighting”.
“The cyber and technological factor- she added- as the recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine showed, has changed the paradigm of the conflict itself, cancelling the schemes of traditional boarders, but also the definition of nation- power and consequently, of international affairs. This entire scenario calls the diplomacy to rebuild the relations between nations, promote the national interest and limit the instability. It is our duty to launch a cyber capacity building ecosystem, this is to say creating a national ecosystem able to connect the forces between the public and private sector in order to strengthen the alliance between the partner countries, reducing the difference regarding the digitalization between countries which makes system vulnerable, insecure and unstable”.
Ivano Gabrielli, Director of Postal and Communication Police, mentioned about how Italy is considered an internationally model recognized for the cybersecurity.
“We need a Cyber Police- Gabrielli explained. This is a necessary asset in prevention and contrast terms. Cyber-attacks integrated with crimes doubled, reaching over 13 thousand cases, with multiplication factor of 100% from February 2022. Law enforcement structures, such as our, have to always be present in the architecture of every single nation cyber security and must be cherished, maintained and daily nourished”.
“Cybercrime-he added- is considered among the five most dangerous threats of the future. The Italian model is peculiar being able to boast a significant capillarity in the territory with 18 networked structures and a great capacity to respond to threats. We are about to create a Central Head dedicated to cyber security which will stand alongside the Central Anti-Crime and Anti-Terrorism Directorate”.
