What happened to the European Cybersecurity Center

A year later the message is still there, pinned at the top of the Twitter profile timeline: the European Cybersecurity Skills Center (Eccc) "is ready to take off". Twelve months later, the body, set up in 2020 to promote research and support the cybersecurity companies of the Old Continent, is still parked in the square. For this reason, at the board meeting scheduled for June 23 in Bucharest, where the cybersecurity center is based, the representatives of the States of the Union arrived with suitcases loaded with cahiers de doléances. It is the first physical meeting, after many remote meetings due to the pandemic. And it is also the one in which the exponents of the 27 count on finally turning on the engines of the EC, after a departure judged cumbersome and frayed by sources heard by sportsgaming.win.

The goal is to get up from the tables of the two days with a clear program with which to reach three objectives: an organized center, a director at the helm and guidelines on investments. Around the table there are two members of the Commission, a member from each state (Italy has entrusted the task to the National Agency for Cybersecurity - Acn) and a permanent observer from Enisa, the community agency for information security.

Technological screening and startups: what the National Cybersecurity Agency has in the pipeline The National Center to certify sensitive technology is underway. A plan to support security spinoffs. A Hypersoc prototype at the end of the year. Acn's plans Without rhyme or reason The first problem to be faced is to find who to put at the helm of the Eccc. The first call to identify the leadership figure went deserted. At the moment the European Commission has buffered the situation with an interim figure, "Miguel Gonzalez-Sancho, a mid-level official specializing in cybersecurity", wrote Euractiv. A new call is open, with a deadline of next September 6.

The second is to build a network of universities, laboratories and companies to invest in research, new products and technology for information security. Furthermore, centers of competence for cybersecurity will have to be established at national level. The Ecc holds the strings of the Community Funds Exchange, Horizon and Digital Europe programs. "It has 270 million euros of resources", specifies on the sidelines of Itasec, the Italian conference on cyber security organized by the National Cybersecurity Laboratory, Luca Nicoletti, which at Acn is responsible for coordinating industrial, technological, research and training programs .

The great technological alliance between Europe and the United States Washington and Brussels want to coordinate efforts for common standards and projects in the tech field, from 6G to artificial intelligence, putting China on the corner. An agreement that, however, reserves many obstacles Research programs A first tender has already been launched and has identified some solutions to be financed, including, according to Wired's knowledge, an Italian one for the healthcare world. Precisely one of the most affected at the computer level, as demonstrated, just to mention Italy, by the cases of the Lazio Region, Ulss Euganea in Veneto and the Milanese hospitals of Asst Fatebenefratelli Sacco. A new call for applications will open on 29 September to enroll research projects. There are 140 million euros on the plate. “If we want to push strategic autonomy, we need to involve industry. I am confident that the project will start ", comments Giorgio Mosca, vice president of the steering committee for cybersecurity of Confindustria Digitale and manager of the national defense champion, Leonardo, commented on the sidelines of Itasec. of the Middle. Enlist technicians, experts and administrative staff to operate the machine. And select the advisory committee, which will support management in planning investments and programs. A 3 million tender was launched to meet the activation costs of the Eccc. Investment projects are also on the agenda of the meeting. Italy, for example, will tell about its plan for the Hypersoc, a center for security operations that is able to automatically collect the signals of events recorded by all the connected parties to relate them and have a vision complete and generalized of the current situation. "We aim to make it to the end of the year with a prototype", Gianluca Galasso, director of Acn's Operations / Csirt service, explained to Itasec.

At the opening of the works, the Commission issued a note to celebrate the milestone and relaunch tenders and tenders for staff. However, Brussels knows it can no longer linger on the project, which has been bogged down for years. At stake is the continent's international competitiveness, squeezed between the primacy of the United States and the rise of China. Last year, Beijing launched a three-year program to grow the cybersecurity industry, with the aim, as reported by the Global Times (government press), to exceed $ 38 billion in value in 2023. While in 2019 the European Court of Auditors calculated that if in the Old Continent the average spending on cyber security accounts for 0.1% of the gross domestic product of the 27, on the other side of the Atlantic it is 0.35%. A warning to Europe to get investments off the ground. The Eccc, however, still remained in the hangar.