“We are trying to catch up”

“We started late compared to other countries but we are trying to catch up to keep pace to guarantee protection for citizens who today also have to deal with cyber threats. We are trying to invest heavily in the culture of digital risk and this is an element that must pervade any person because the moment risk awareness is increased, a strategy begins to be outlined. We have many tools but we need to try to simplify and invest in the ability to improve”. She said it the Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso al Cyber Security Summit 360the event of Cybersecurity360 e AgendaDigitale.eu which was also attended by the Deputy General Manager of the Department of Information Security Alessandra Guidi, the Deputy General Manager of theNational Cybersecurity Agency Nunzia Ciardi and the Member of the Guarantor for the protection of personal data Agostino Ghiglia, as well as the main protagonists of the Italian cyber scene.

Cybersecurity as an enabler of complex projects

During the XII edition of the event, which was held yesterday in Rome, the new opportunities and regulatory and institutional challenges in the prevention and management of accidents were placed at the center of the discussion, in an increasingly digital country system in which smart city and smart mobility projects. “An opportunity to analyze regulatory and institutional evolution with top experts, to evaluate the economic impact of accidents and to analyze the best strategies for damage containment and finally to think about how cybersecurity is increasingly becoming a constraint of compliance enabling for the development of complex projects,” he said Gabriele Faggioli, CEO of Digital360who organized the summit.

The national system is not yet adequately protected and interconnected

But yesterday was characterized by another anniversary which offered the opportunity to address the issue of cybersecurity from another point of view as well. During the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Postal Police, Bruno Frattasi, new head of the National Cybersecurity Agency, reiterated that “our main mission is resilience, to better protect the digital surface. Today, systems are not adequately protected, they need to be hardened to resist attacks. And we also aim to raise awareness of cyber risk.”

The director of the Department of Information for Security, Elisabetta Belloni, he underlined on the other hand that “cyber is a world characterized by a total absence of regulations, there are no shared international standards and the potential hostile actor gains, the costs and also the risks are lower. It’s difficult to trace hostile activity, to assign accountability. There has been”, continued Belloni “an ever more accelerated use of cyber with the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Espionage by state actors, but also by groups and individuals, has increased. The targets are both public and private”. In the opinion of the director of the Dis “interinstitutional collaboration is important. We are in daily contact with the Department of Public Security and the National Cybersecurity Agency, but further efforts must be made, it is not enough, a strategic anti-terrorism analysis committee is needed to deal with cyber and collaboration must be extended to the judicial authority”. In the crosshairs there are critical infrastructures managed by the public but also by the private sector and among the vulnerable sectors, underlined Belloni: “there are defence, energy, telecommunications, biotechnologies. We cannot work in watertight compartments, we need the exchange of information”.

The national anti-mafia and anti-terrorism prosecutor Giovanni Melillo he added that on cybersecurity “we are in a situation of total inadequacy. We are suffering from a serious delay. There is a substantial subordination of the public with respect to technologies controlled by the market and we discount an overall inadequacy of the regulatory framework. There is no relationship”, highlighted Melillo, “between the National Cybersecurity Agency and the judicial authority. There is no connection between the Agency’s reparation functions and those of ascertaining the crime”. He added, “the idea of ​​competence and jurisdiction over a cyber attack has disappeared. When a public administration system is attacked, private surveillance makes the findings. There is a lag in awareness and a long way to go”.

Italy can be an important mediator on the international front

Instead, by participating in the Cyber Crime Conferencealways on stage in Rome, Matteo Lucchetti, director of Cyber ​​4.0, the national center of expertise on cybersecurity, said that Italy could play an important role as mediator in the discussions that will start in the coming months at the United Nations to formulate a new international convention on cybercrime. “The new UN Convention will be decisive for a shared definition of cybercrime based on respect for fundamental rights and on a vision of the Internet as an open and free space,” explained Lucchetti. The risk is that cyber security will turn into a weapon, especially in countries afflicted by wars or political tensions, to restrict the freedom of expression of privacy, the discretion of criminal law. This is why in the coming months the United Nations will open discussions for a new shared convention on cybercrime to supersede the previous one dating back over 20 years ago. “To deal with cybercrime, international cooperation tools are needed, based on legal treaties, so that the evidence collected can be used in the courts and not just as intelligence information”, observed the director of Cyber ​​4.0. “Italy can do a lot to encourage negotiations where there is a closed and state-centric vision of the Internet as a place of borders and that of the Internet as a free, inclusive and collaborative place”.

@ALL RIGHTS RESERVED