Cybersecurity is a constantly evolving field - Spruds

RIGA - Cyber security is constantly evolving, therefore it is necessary to discuss innovations, challenges and recent regulations in this area, said Minister of Defense Andris Spruds (Progressives) at the CyberChess 2024 conference organized by the information technology (IT) security incident prevention institution Cert.lv on Wednesday.

He stressed that we live in challenging times, when we experience many different risks and threats, so it is important to exchange best practices and discuss actions in the field of cyber security.

At the same time, Spruds pointed out that Latvia has a vision and clear goals on what to do in cybersecurity. This includes the recent approval of a cyber security law and the establishment of a national cyber security center. Latvia is also actively cooperating with international partners, including Canadian partners, with whom it has joint threat search operations.

Baiba Kaskina, director of Cert.lv, emphasized that October is Cyber Security Month in Europe, when efforts are being made to focus public attention on cyber security, which is even more important now than before, as the situation in cyberspace is changing "for the worse".

Kaskina welcomed the establishment of the Cyber Security Law, while noting that Latvia is one of the countries that has implemented the law on time.

She also noted that the establishment of the National Cyber Security Center is important to face the challenges in the field and to be able to look at security from all necessary angles.

Kaskina pointed out that the cybersecurity environment remains very complex - we are constantly under attack, with increasingly demanding financially motivated campaigns, as well as various hacktivist activities. "The good news is that most of these attacks are stopped before internet users feel the consequences, so we need to keep doing what we are doing and we need to get better at what we are doing," said Kaskina.

Meanwhile, Rolands Henins, Director General of the National Cyber Security Center, stressed at the conference that so far the National Cyber Security Center has been established, an assessment of the security requirements of national information systems has been carried out, the National Cyber Security Law has been adopted and the Network and Information Systems Security Directive (NIS2) of the European Union is being monitored.

The Cyber Security Center is responsible for developing and monitoring cyber security policy, implementing and monitoring the NIS2 Directive, dealing with cyber security incidents and other tasks.

As key milestones in promoting cyber security, Henins highlighted the organization of the first national cyber security competition for young people, as well as the victory of the joint Latvian-NATO team in the cyber defense exercise Locket Shields 2024.

Future plans include public awareness and education, including regional seminars, various cybersecurity challenges, as well as the development of cybersecurity education, Henins said.

He also mentioned the development of cybersecurity research, as well as the use of various EU financial instruments to promote the development of cybersecurity. At the same time, there is a need to focus on cyber crisis management, including the development of a public cyber crisis plan.

As reported, the CyberChess 2024 cyber security conference, organized by Cert.lv, takes place from October 1 to 3.

The conference is organized by Cert.lv, the Ministry of Defense and the National Cyber Security Center in cooperation with the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) Latvian Chapter and the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics of the University of Latvia.

Cert.lv is a unit of the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics of the University of Latvia, whose tasks are to maintain a unified picture of the activities taking place in the electronic information space, to provide support in preventing or coordinating the prevention of information technology security incidents in the IP address areas of Latvia and in the .lv domain zone.