Cybersecurity

Grant Agreement for the Security Operations Center (SOC)

A Grant Agreement for the Security Operations Center (SOC) for the enhancement of cyber security in Greece.

A Grant Agreement has been signed between the ministry of digital governance and the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC) who will fund the development and operation of the “SOC–Security Operations Center”.

The Grant Agreement is in the frame of the funding programme “DEP” and the budget of the project reaches 9.7 million euros, out of which 50% is a European funding and the other 50% will be covered by national resources.

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New cybersecurity related legislation in Finland

The Act on the Protection of Infrastructure Critical to Society and on the Improvement of Resilience took effect on 1 July 2025 in Finland. The new legislation imposes requirements on all entities providing services critical to society according to an EU directive. The legislation aims to reinforce national security and societal resilience amid the evolving security threat landscape in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Finnish Ministry of the Interior will cooperate with other ministries to identify essential entities in Finland and at the same time renew the national security assessment according to the new legislation. The industried deemed essential include: infrastructure, health, drinking water, wastewater management, digital infrastructure, public administration, space, and the food industry including processing and distribution.

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Communication Strategies in Cybersecurity

While many things in Cybersecurity may seem self-evident (need for good passwords, increased vigilance when handling emails, etc.), the site https:// Theconversation.com/ featured an interesting article on unintended effects of certain types of communication. In particular, it underscored the need to understand not just the technical needs of your audience but also the socio-economic aspects of the audience.

When conducting cybersecurity campaigns, we find that efforts at communication sometimes backfire and cause the opposite of the desired effect. Several consequences can arise:

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Need for cultural change regarding cybersecurity

Roger A. Grimes (KnowBe4’s Data-Driven Defense Evangelist) wrote an excellent Comprehensive Anti-Phishing Guide to help IT personnel combat increasing threats from phishing.

Among the important points Roger Grimes made were:

Training: We have to accept that there will always be to some degree phishing and social engineering activity that will bypass even the best or our defenses. Consequently, it is important to train employees how to recognize phishing and social engineering activity and how to manage them. Social engineering and phishing have long been thought to be the principal cause for many malicious data breaches. Fostering good security awareness training is indispensable to building a human firewall.

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Threats and challenges in Greece - Check Point Software – Cybersecurity 2025

As Greece continues to digitize its public and private sectors, cybersecurity has become a national priority. Recent high-profile cyberattacks on government services and critical infrastructure have underscored the country’s vulnerability to emerging digital threats. With growing investment in AI, cloud technologies, and smart city initiatives, Greece faces the same global challenges—AI-enabled attacks, cloud misconfigurations etc—but often with fewer resources and cybersecurity professionals compared to larger nations. In this evolving threat landscape, staying ahead requires not only adopting global best practices but also preparing for the specific vulnerabilities that come with Greece’s digital transformation. Added to the aforementioned, is the challenge of the lack of digital literacy, which makes the progress in this field even slower.

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Digital Transformation in Italian Local Authorities: Progress Made, but Cybersecurity Lags Behind

In recent years, Italy’s local governments have taken significant steps toward digital transformation. Fuelled by national reforms and EU recovery funds, more and more municipalities are bringing services online. Yet as digital adoption accelerates, a critical vulnerability has emerged: cybersecurity.

A More Digital Italy—Even at the Local Level?

Digital innovation is no longer the exclusive domain of central ministries or major cities. Local governments across Italy are embracing new technologies at an unprecedented pace. The data speaks for itself:

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Greek companies have the weakest cybersecurity

Greek businesses have emerged as the weakest link in the European Union when it comes to cybersecurity, ranking last in terms of protective measures against cyberattacks. Just days after Kaspersky released data showing that Greece tops the list as the most dangerous online environment globally, Eurostat figures paint a grim picture of corporate cyber-readiness, placing Greek companies extremely low in the rankings.

According to the latest Eurostat data, while the majority of companies in the EU have implemented cybersecurity measures, disparities among member-states remain significant. Greek companies stand out negatively, being labeled as the weakest of Europe in terms of implementing cybersecurity protections.

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What can cybersecurity learn from true crime?

Even if you’re not a fan of true crime documentaries or podcasts, you’re probably familiar with some of the well-known serial killers from USA in the 1980s. Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and the Golden State Killer to name a few.

Now what does this have to do with cybersecurity and CS-AWARE-NEXT? I promise there is a connection other than justifying my consumption of true crime podcasts during office hours!

Watching true crime documentaries, where the serial killer is caught much too late because they committed their crimes in different states or counties and the police stations didn’t share information across borders. In their defence, at the time, the technology wasn’t developed to do so.

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Cybersecurity & the Domino effect

A cyberattack is rarely caused by one big thing, but more often a combination of many little things. We see it all the time in disaster documentary film, how even the tiniest little detail can start a chain reaction with devastating results. A chain reaction that could have been stopped if even just one of the Dominos in the line were missing.

Take documentary film about plane crashes for example. We know flying is safe, we know how high the security priority is. In the events of a crash, we hear of all the frustratedly many small errors and we are left wondering how so many things have been overlooked.

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Beyond 2025

OTS Company, as a partner of the CS-AWARE-NEXT, represented the project at the international digital technology and innovation exhibition “Beyond”, which took place from 4 to 6 of April 2025 in Athens, Greece.

Beyond fosters the development of innovative technologies and business opportunities, while it aims at creating a hub that promotes collaboration and encourages the exchange of knowledge and ideas. It is a great opportunity for global innovators, researchers, and start-ups to connect. This year, the title of the exhibition was “AI Reality Bites” and focused on artificial intelligence and all the factors that come along as it integrates society. Cybersecurity was also a key theme: there were experts who demonstrated live, discussed in panels and showcased in workshops the importance of it and how a user or an organization can be safer online.

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