Address Mr George Michaelides Commissioner of Electronic Communications & Postal Regulation, Republic of Cyprus
Address Mr George Michaelides Commissioner of Electronic Communications & Postal Regulation, Republic of Cyprus
It is with great pleasure that I welcome the initiative of the organizers to host this conference in Cyprus.
The maritime sector is traditionally important for Cyprus economy while the oil and natural gas industry is gaining major importance to Cyprus, following the recent developments in the exploration of these energy resources. The conference addresses the very important issue of securing the maritime, the oil and natural gas infrastructures and systems from cyber threads and cyber-attacks, which have transitioned from the theoretical level to the inevitable.
Recent years have shown that cyber threats are growing rapidly, spreading in all industry sectors which progressively more and more rely on ICT systems. For this reason the issues of network and information security are part of the wider information society framework, and security is considered an important pillar of the Digital Agenda for Europe. Cybersecurity issues are very high in the European Union’ s agenda, the following policy, strategy and legislative related matters have been concluded:
�
The new regulation of ENISA entered into force in September 2013
�
The new cybersecurity strategy of the European Union, which was published in February 2013
�
New NIS directive( exp. 18 May).
n the same context, regarding the Critical Information Infrastructure Protection( CIIP), the Council has examined the policy and subsequent actions including decisions on security issues and in particular the protection of Critical Information Infrastructure( CIIP), encouraging effective collaboration between public and private actors in Member States, and third countries, and the exchange of information and good practices between Member States. The Commission’ s( DG CONECT) most recent communication on Critical Information Infrastructure Protection( CIIP) draws attention to the steady growth, in the number, scope, sophistication and potential impact of threats, natural or man-made, to European Critical Information Infrastructures. It brings forward achievements, and next steps towards global cybersecurity by structurally addressing cyber risk and Critical Information Infrastructure Protection, focussing first on the energy and transport sectors.
Additionally, efforts were also undertaken by the Director General for Mobility and Transport( DG MOVE) along with the European Maritime Safety Agency( EMSA) to facilitate secure data exchange between Member States’ maritime authorities, through the SAFE-SEA-NET platform.
Furthermore, a very important development is the upcoming NIS Directive. Last December, the European Council and the European Parliament reached a political agreement on the new Directive on Network and Information Security( NIS directive). The Directive is expected to be officially published within May 2016.
1 / 3