--- CyberCon Romania 2024 Conference – Welcome Message
Author(s): BACIVAROV, Ioan
Issue: Volume 13, Issue 2, Year 2024
Message presented as Keynote Address at the opening of the Cybercon Romania 2024 Conference (Bucharest, 20th November 2024)
Ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I would like to extend to you, as President of the Romanian Association for Information Security Assurance (RAISA), a warm welcome to the Cybercon Romania 2024 Conference.
I would like to express our special thanks for the support given in organizing Cybercon Romania 2024 to the U.S, Embassy in Romania and to the conference partners, such as, the Euro-Atlantic Resilience Center, the National Institute of Research and Development in Informatics – ICI Bucharest, the Romanian Banking Institute, the European Institute of Romania, the Romanian Institute of Financial Studies, as well as all the other organizations and universities involved in this important area, whose names are mentioned on the conference website.
The fact that the work of this conference is taking place at the headquarters of the European Commission Representation in Romania wants to emphasize the importance given by the European Union (EU) – through its specialized bodies – to cybersecurity issues. Therefore, we would like to thank, once again, the European Commission Representation in Romania for the support provided in the organization of the CyberCon Romania 2024 Conference.
Special thanks also go to the media partner of this event, the National Press Agency AGERPRES, for the way it reflected RAISA’s activities aimed at improving cybersecurity culture in Romania.
Cybercon Romania 2024 is one of the events organized this fall in Romania, in the frame of the “European Cybersecurity Month”, the annual campaign that promotes cybersecurity awareness and best online practices in the EU countries
Also, this conference is among the scientific events organized under the auspices of RAISA with the aim of marking a century since quality was implemented as a science.
Indeed, the qualiticians from all over the world celebrated hundred years since modern quality was implemented as a science, through the contributions of Walter Shewhart, as well as other quality gurus. Among them, I am proud to mention the American qualitician of Romanian origin, Joseph Juran, with whom I had friendly relations and from whom I obtained the acceptance that the Romanian National Prize in the field of quality, established thirty years ago, should bear his name.
The weight of the components of the quality vector has changed throughout this century, and at the present time, the security component (and especially cybersecurity) has become one of the most important, as I will demonstrate this in the analysis that I will present in the scientific part of this conference.
Special thanks are due to all the important experts in the field, who will present their views during the conference and will thus contribute to shaping a realistic picture of the challenges, risks and solutions in the field of cybersecurity, in the very difficult international period we are going through.
The Romanian Association for Information Security Assurance (RAISA) – the main organizer of this conference – is a professional, nonprofit and public benefit association, founded twelve years ago, as an initiative dedicated to disseminating the concept of cybersecurity and fighting against cybercrime.
The vision of RAISA is to promote research and education in the information security field, to contribute to the creation and dissemination of knowledge and technology in this domain and to create a strong “cybersecurity culture” at national level.
Among the notable activities developed by RAISA, we mention the publishing of the International Journal of Information Security and Cybercrime (IJISC), a scientific journal indexed in several international databases (and I would like to invite the specialists in the field to publish in this journal the results of their researches), awareness websites, workshops, research projects and studies in the field of cybersecurity.
We are aware that the achievement of a strong “cybersecurity culture” at national level can be obtained only through the joint effort of several entities from the public, private and academic sectors.
Indeed, the cooperation of all the factors involved is the key word, if the development of a strong and efficient cybersecurity system is desired at national level. And conferences like Cybercon Romania can facilitate the exchange of ideas and the establishment of partnerships in this important field.
During the conference, challenges and future changes in the field of cyber-security will undoubtedly be analyzed. The most important of these refers, of course, to the increasingly intensive use of Artificial Intelligence techniques in the field of cyber-security.
Romania has a privileged position in the field of cybersecurity, and the competence of Romanian specialists in the field is recognized and appreciated. A proof of this is the choice of Romania as the host of the European Cybersecurity Competence Center, whose inauguration took place recently in Bucharest.
During CyberCon 2024 the implementation of the EU’s latest cybersecurity policies and legislation, such as the EU Cyber Resilience Act, the NIS2 Directive, or the EU Cyber Solidarity Act will be certainly analyzed.
2024 marks the 20th anniversary of the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, ENISA – which has been constantly monitoring the cybersecurity threat landscape in our continent.
As mentioned in ENISA’s recent documents, during the last year, there was a notable escalation in cybersecurity attacks, setting new benchmarks in both the variety and number of incidents, as well as their consequences. The ongoing regional conflicts still remain a significant factor shaping the cybersecurity landscape.
The year 2024 was – and still is – an important electoral year at the global level. Nearly half the world population – around 4 billion people – heads to the polls in 2024: elections in the European Union (EU) and in the United States (US) take the centre stage. Since technology and politics go hand in hand, it’s important for cyber experts to answer a series of questions, such as: What’s the risk of election cyber interference in different countries (including Romania)? What can be done to prevent such threats?
I hope that the focus of the next two days of the conference will be on coordinating efforts, establishing response structures, and creating regulatory certainty in this disruptive environment where innovation and cybersecurity converge.
CyberCon Romania 2024 takes place within a managerial part, structured in several panels, and within a scientific part.
The following main issues will be debated within the panels:
- Challenges and Trends in Cybersecurity.
- Maintaining Resilience for a Secure Cyber Infrastructure.
- Enhancing Collaboration between Defense and Civilian Cybersecurity.
- Evolution of Cyber Threats: Perspectives and Solutions.
- Best Practices for Bridging Cybersecurity and Cybercrime.
Finally, we would like to thank all the authors who submitted their work to the scientific side of this conference, all experts that presented in the panels, and all those who contributed to the conference with their efforts and support.
We hope that the Cybercon Romania 2024 Conference was both a stimulating and enjoyable event which provided the latest results and trends in cybersecurity and we wish it every success.
More information about CyberCon Romania 2024 Conference can be found on the webpage https://cybercon.ro/.
Title: CyberCon Romania 2024 Conference – Welcome Message
Author(s): BACIVAROV, Ioan
Publication: International Journal of Information Security and Cybercrime
ISSN: 2285-9225, e-ISSN: 2286-0096
Issue: Volume 13, Issue 2, Year 2024
Section: Books Reviews and Conferences Analysis
Page Range: 65-69
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