Elisavet Goutman

Lessons learnt from cyber-attacks on Greek municipalities

Just how hard is to describe the importance of a service whose value the customers cannot quite comprehend or quantify in order to invest in it in the Greek public sector?

If one had to answer this question, he would have to give many answers, depending on various factors. It is incredibly difficult for an organisation to fully comprehend the need and the importance of cybersecurity service or product when he hasn’t been exposed or harmed by a cyber-attack. It is even harder, when the organisation lacks the necessary funds, or has other priorities to address. In some cases, one needs to give specific examples of the danger and the prevention procedure or restoring. An issue that has arisen and has been widely discussed lately is a cyber-attack in the City Hall infrastructure of Thessaloniki, Greece. That has been a wake-up call for many Municipalities, but majorly the big ones.

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Cybersecurity challenges in Greek companies – Study by EY Greece and Microsoft

ΕΥ Greece and Microsoft have carried out a study on the challenges concerning cybersecurity in Greece. The study attempts, for the first time in the Greek market, to thoroughly analyse the current national and European legal and regulatory framework of cybersecurity. European regulations, such as NIS, NIS II and CERD, the main legal acts on cybersecurity in Greece (4577/2018, 4961/2022), their field of practice and the next steps for the compliance of the Greek companies with those, are presented in the study. In addition, the study describes the goals and the respective actions of the National Cyber Security Strategy 2020-2025 that was presented by the Ministry of Digital Governance.

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3 ερωτήσεις – 3 απαντήσεις: Our popular CS-AWARE podcast series of 3 questions – 3 answers now in other languages

We start today with a podcast in Greek with Elisavet Goutman, Business Development and Marketing Manager of OTS in Greece.

We are happy to announce the fourth podcast with Elisavet Goutman of OTS Greece. The reason we shall experiment with podcasts in national languages, namely not in English is rather simple: English can be our common working language for Deliverables, and can be ideal for reaching out researchers, but if we truly want to walk the last mile and increase the visibility of the project to a large audience in the participating countries, then the best is to create content in the different national languages.

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Greece's new Cybersecurity Bill

A bill on cyber security, telecommunication privacy issues and personal data has been submitted to the Greek parliament. In particular, the bill aims at “ensuring the necessary balance between privacy protection and national security, within the constitutional frame and in the foundation of the best international policies.” Additionally, the bill strengthens the “citizen’s rights against the threats that are connected to the technological evolution”.

The bill in question deals with issues of counter surveillance with the use of right tools, the foundation of Information Academy and counterintelligence and the setting of a stricter privacy frame. A major part of the bill though is about cybersecurity and the enforcement of the privacy protection. A coordination committee is assembled with the task of breaking down of the related structures. A Unified Reporting Center for Cybersecurity is running in the ministry of Digital Governance. Also, for the first time, a National Plan for Valuation of Technology and Communication Systems hazard levels is structured. It is used for recognition, analysis and valuation of the hazards and their repercussions on the safety of the national technology, information and communication systems. Prior ambiguities in the embedding of this frame for privacy protection were lifted. The ministry of Justice embodies in this bill, a number of suggestions that were made during its consultation and further improvements were made. A number of amendments were carried out and they are outlined below:

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Massive increase in cyber attacks in 2022

Universities, research centers, state and military services, hospitals, communication infrastructure and banks have received numerous cyberattacks in 2022; and the worst is yet to come.

It is estimated that more than 1.000 cyberattacks per organisation take place throughout the universe, which is 38% more than 2021. In Europe in particular, the average number of attacks per target reached 1.000, with an increase of 26% when compared to 2021. In a worse position one can find the Americans, as they faced an increase of 52%!

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