Welcome Address On behalf of the Commissioner of Communications , Republic of Cyprus George Michaelides
Diamantis Zafeiriades Head of Digital Security Authority ( DSA ) Republic of Cyprus
Dear friends and distinguished guests , ladies and gentlemen ,
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you all to the first Cyber health conference which is under the auspices of Ministry of Health and is supported by the European Commission , the Cyprus Organisation for Standardisation , the Cyprus Computer Society , the Cyprus Association of Information Protection & Privacy and the Digital Security Authority .
The fragility of health institutions was highlighted by the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020 . Adding to this overwhelming situation , the sector has become a direct target or collateral victim of cybersecurity attacks resulting in disruption to their operations , theft of medical records , and significant financial losses . What we have come to grasp and reminded of the last few years is that the most essential and critical information infrastructure of our country , of any country , is healthcare . We cannot allow any disruption to the provision of these services and must build an untouchable wall around them .
That is where the Digital Security Authority comes into the scene . The DSA is an independent governmental agency established in April 2018 , under the Commissioner of Communications . It is responsible for the implementation of the European NIS ( Network and Information Security ) Directive , with a strong focus on upgrading and maintaining high levels of cybersecurity for all of the operators of essential services and critical information infrastructures in our country , including operators in the energy , water , transport , health , banking , financial market infrastructure , and digital infrastructure sectors .
The DSA , also , comprises of the National CSIRT , offering proactive services , in the form of alerts and warnings to the local and international community , as well as reactive services , such as incident management in cases of a cyber-incident to a range of constituents within Cyprus . Moreover , as part of our organization ’ s strategy , we
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