Cooperation, recovery and solidarity: ECSO outlines its cybersecurity priorities for 2021
In the occasion of the international round table on “Digital and Sustainable Bulgaria: The Little Ones in Focus” held in Sofia on 21 September and organised by ECSO, the Bulgarian Union for Private Economic Enterprise, the Bulgarian Small and Medium Enterprises Promotion Agency (BSMEPA) and the Bulgarian Cybersecurity Association (BCA), ECSO Secretary General Luigi Rebuffi outlined the Organisation’s priorities for 2021 in cybersecurity.
The event “Digital Sustainable Bulgaria” was a valuable opportunity for ECSO to share its vision on Europe’s cybersecurity ecosystem and put forward its solutions for a resilient and strategically autonomous digital Europe, focussing in particular on the Bulgarian reality.
“One of the issues highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic is the fragility of our ecosystem, in particular SMEs, to cyberattacks. Furthermore, Europe’s upcoming Recovery Fund will speed up the digital transition, and SMEs are like our youngest generation: they use a variety of digital tools to operate, but they do not always understand the risks, and therefore might not always know how to take appropriate measures to mitigate them.”, said ECSO Secretary General Luigi Rebuffi. “This is where Public-Private Partnerships like ECSO can make a difference, connecting experienced actors, such as public administrations and public authorities, with new actors like SMEs and startups, who are extremely important in the technological ecosystem and who are often at the forefront of innovation. With our Bulgarian partners, we at ECSO are looking for ways to support not only the SMEs providing cyber solutions, but also those SMEs needing cyber protection.”, he added.
The European and local setting provided by the event also prepared the floor for discussions on Europe’s international role and presence when it comes to cybersecurity. With this regard, Mr. Rebuffi underlined ECSO’s importance in representing over 200 Members from different sectors in order to build a European cybersecurity community and increase our strategic autonomy and competitiveness. “In a fast evolving and wide digital environment, resources will always be limited. The only way to optimise their use is to cooperate in a network at local, national and European level, as envisaged by ECSO with its Members, including those here in Bulgaria.”, he said. To this end, ECSO is in fact involving its Members in six working groups and activities on technology innovation, standardisation, certification, market needs and investments, education – training and jobs, local and regional ecosystems and support to SMEs, as well as creating concrete activities, such as the Women4Cyber Foundation, the Cybersecurity made in Europe label and many more.
“ECSO is not your traditional association in Brussels, only providing suggestions and talks: we are operational, we develop projects and support the implementation of services for the community as a whole.”, said Mr. Rebuffi. One of the latest concrete actions presented by Mr. Rebuffi was ECSO’s support to the upcoming European Commission initiative: the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre in Bucharest and the creation of the national coordination centres. Beyond this coordination brought by the national center, the new European approach is also supporting the development of local approaches called Digital Innovation Hubs, which are federating experts in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and blockchain. These Hubs are then connected at European level in the European Digital Innovation Hubs to provide synergies and growth.
ECSO has already started to gather the different cybersecurity Hubs into a European network, to strengthen the Community approach and the creation of added value for its Members and for society as a whole.
In the framework of European and cross-sector cooperation, ECSO will be busy attending various events until 2021. Don’t miss the chance to learn more about ECSO’s activities: follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter, and have a look at our events section.
