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Cyber security is an area where if you are isolated you stand no chance, and we all tend to forget that the cyber-security is a team sport, Dan Cimpean, director of Romania's National Cyber-Security Directorate (DNSC) on Friday told the Moldova Cybersecurity Forum 2024 event.
"We all tend to forget that cyber-security is a team sport, it's a contact sport. It's a domain where alone, in isolation, whether you are an expert, or government, or agency or company (...) you stand no chance (...) You need tools, you need finances, you need partners and you need a regulatory environment, etc. At the European Union we have a gigantic deficit of cyber-security specialists for a variety of reasons. It's not only because apparently technology is moving a lot faster than universities and organisations can keep up with the training and knowledge building and knowledge sharing. Simply, because the technology advances and attacks increase exponentially," Cimpean said.
He added that, regarding the level of IT knowledge, the number of people that in a really systematic and very disciplined manner focus on cyber-security is by far not enough.
"The bad news is that the gap, at least at the moment, is not decreasing, it's not shrinking, it's going more and more, despite all efforts of everyone. (...) Don't neglect the ecosystem. What do we mean in Romania by ecosystem? Government, private business, academia and international partners, allies and like-minded countries or counterparties. We all see that most of the capabilities actually they are not in the hands of governments; they are in the hands of private businesses. We'll be very naive to think that governments will in certain domains be able to build as fast, as efficiently and to deliver as well as the private sector."
He also mentioned that, in the technical environment of cyber-security, "we tend to forget the regular users."
"There are more or less 12 million Internet users every single day in Romania. They install everything you can imagine; they use every technology you can imagine, and the age where they become proficient is getting lower and lower. We see kids, 3-4 years old able to install apps on their tablets and using them and doing stuff on the Internet. How can I, as a national cyber-security authority, explain to kids how they can behave in a safe way on the Internet? They simply don't listen to us. They listen to their colleagues, to their teachers eventually, to their parents, to the gamers, to the influencers and so on. To put it very directly, sometimes we are too serious as cyber professionals."
The official also mentioned the SME segment in Romania, where the key feature is the "very low" technical maturity level.
"In Romania we have about half a million small and medium-sized enterprises, which, as far as I know, in all European Union member states represent the backbone of the economy. They hire probably the most employees, and they represent a large share of the GDP. What's their key characteristic? You all know: very low maturity level. Sometimes, they don't even have IT teams, not to mention cyber-teams."
In Cimpean's opinion, "without budgets, without investment, you cannot get successful" and "we cannot deliver effectively on cyber-security."
"One last point I wanted to also share with you is the importance of cross-border co-operation. To a large extent, it's the privilege and responsibility of member states. Alone, you cannot do anything," the DNSC director said.
