The Regulatory Authority for Electronic Communications and Postal Services (RATEL)-National CERT and the Serbian National Internet Domain Registry Foundation (RNIDS) organized a conference dedicated to information security, under the slogan „Information Security – Joint Responsibility“. The Conference was held on October the 17th in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Belgrade, with the support of the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications and the Cybersecurity Network Foundation.
In an introductory address, the attendees were greeted by Marko Jovanović, Deputy Minister of Information Society and Cybersecurity, who expressed hope about future regular gatherings of the cyber community representatives every October, cybersecurity month, as they would be able to exchange experience, knowledge and information about both performed activities and planned initiatives in the area of information security.
Duško Kodžić, Head of RATEL’s Cyber Security and IT Department, said that, in order to achieve an adequate cybersecurity level, beside the necessary technical solutions, appropriate strategic approach and legal framework, individual action of each user and responsible use of the Internet are of critical importance. With that in mind, he pointed out that this year’s slogan „Information Security – Joint Responsibility“, describing October activities, is not coincidental, since the right level of a country’s security can only be achieved through common actions and responsible approach of each individual.
Dejan Đukić, Director of RNIDS, noticed, during his greeting speech, that for cybersecurity purposes, a continuous exchange of information and experience is indispensable, as new challenges require preventive actions in terms of monitoring and identificaion of threats, aiming to achieve protection.
After the introductory speeches, Milan Vojvodić, representing the Ministry of Information and Telecommunications, delivered a presentation entitled „Key changes to be introduced by the Law on Information Security”, pointing out that the new Draft law should enable the improvement of national cybersecurity through an alignment of national legislation with the latest European regulatory solutions and the NIS 2 Directive, in order to redefine its own competencies and establish the protocol for proceeding in the event of incidents or cyber threats.
Next up, Dr Marko Krstić, Head of Cybersecurity Division and National CERT Affairs, presented the National CERT’s current activites, competencies and future plans.
The above presentations were followed by panel discussions during which numerous experts discussed current cybersecurity topics.
The Draft Law on Information Security was the topic of the first panel discussion, where it was concluded that in order to reach a higher level of protection of citizens and special importance ICT system operators, it was necessary to align the legislation of the Republic of Serbia with the EU legal framework.
During the second panel discussion, the topic of artificial intelligence (AI) was debated, both as an opportunity for development and a possible cybersecurity threat. The panellists agreed that AI could be used as a tool for risk assessmnet and prevention, however, due to the abuse of new technologies for the purpose of conducting cyber attacks, both end-users and organizations should be mindful of the underlying risk.
A panel entitled „Cybersecurity Risks and Challenges in Financial Sector – Ways of Protection“ gathered the financial sector representatives, who debated about the regulation of the financial service providers’ obligations and responsibilities, but also warned about cases of malicious activities targeting the users. As a conclusion, the participants also offered advice for protection, calling for general caution.
Considering the importance of an individual approach to a safer use of technologies, special attention was paid to various initiatives for raising awareness and knowledge in the area of information security. Therefore, several projects were presented, such as platform Smart and Safe, Cyber Security Quiz app, activities of organization Women4Cyber and ReWIRE project.
The video of the National Cyber Conference is available at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PISRqDDgNI.