CommMin Sova: Romania needs to strengthen its position as regional leadership in this area

Romania must actively contribute to creating a fair cybersecurity market and also strengthen its regional leadership in this area, Communications Minister Lucian Sova said on Monday the 7th annual international conference on new global cybersecurity challenges, according agerpres.ro. 

"Citizens and companies alike have to realise the cyber threats at each step. To Romania, it is an important challenge to contribute to the development of cybersecurity, the development of a cybersecurity market and, with the implementation of the NIS Directive [Network Internet Security] that is going to happen. We must actively contribute to creating a fair market that will contribute to the strengthening of cyber security. We have suggested for the next period that CERT-RO should play a more active role at national level and contribute to the consolidation of Romania as a regional leader in this area. I also set that, together with our colleagues in the ministry, we will closely follow the developments in the cybersecurity package at European level, so that Romania can be a receiver and a generator of good practices to be translated into the future European rules," Sova told the event organised by the National Cyber Incident Response Centre (CERT-RO). 

He added that cybersecurity officials have been paying special attention to the virtual environment and to what is happening in the cyberspace. 

"At the level of the ministry in my charge, we pay special attention to cybersecurity. It is a proven fact that I have had a very good collaboration with CERT-RO since the beginning of my term in office, in that the bill on the NIS Directive is currently at the stage of public consultation, posted on the website of the ministry. We also pay close attention to the virtual environment and to what is happening there. We have all noticed a series of cyber incidents and I can recall the incident this spring [the Wannacry virus attack] when several organisations and companies were affected," said Sova. 

On October 4, 2017, the Ministry of Communications and Information Society (MCSI) published for public consultation a bill on ensuring a high level of security for computer networks and systems, translating into the national legislation Network and Information Security Directive 1148/2016. 

October 30-31, the National Cyber Incident Response Center (CERT-RO) organises in Bucharest the 7th annual international conference on new global challenges in the field of cybersecurity, which marks the end of the European Cyber Security Month campaign - ECSM. 

Concomitantly, European Commissioner for the Economy and the Digital Society Mariya Gabriel is visiting Romania, and she is scheduled to deliver a speech to the opening of the 7th annual international conference in Bucharest.