Illustration, Photo: Facebook
26.10.2024. 10:17h
Today is an important day for Montenegro. In the afternoon, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Milojko Spajić, will officially open the Government Security Operation Center for monitoring, detecting and responding to incidents (Government Security Operation Center – GSOC), in the Ministry of Public Administration, which will our country, for the first time, to take this most important operational step in securing its cyberspace and its information infrastructure.
Unfortunately, a massive cyber attack on Montenegro had to happen in August 2022 for us as a society to realize how unprotected we were in this area, because we did not do enough in the previous period. Back then, only thanks to the expertise and sacrifice of our experts and the help of our NATO partners, we did much better than we could. We saved both infrastructure and data. It was our school. Since then, we have planned and planned to climb the cyber security ladder. We recognized the need to establish a special Government CIRT (Cyber ​​Incident Response Team) – a team of experts for response in critical situations. So, we have a non-stop guardian of our information infrastructure and our cyberspace and an almost completely created information shield. We have significantly increased the salaries of experts, we have established important partnerships with colleagues outside of Montenegro.
With today’s event, we continue to strongly improve the cyberspace protection system. Now we have more experts, who are continuously trained to respond to challenges, and from today we also have adequate space, modern equipment, and the most advanced software solutions. Fortunately for us, we have partners and friends with whom we exchange experiences and organize joint education and training.
I perceive the arrival of the president of the European Commission as a symbolic message to all of us in Montenegro, as unreserved support for our country, recognition of the capacities of our employees, to acquire knowledge and achieve demanding results, on our European path. Personally and professionally, I am proud that this ambitious goal of the Ministry of Public Administration, which we set out a long time ago, has finally been achieved.
These days in Washington, we secured new support programs for the strengthening of Montenegrin institutions for cyber security by the USA, expert support, cooperation with partner institutions of the USA, state-of-the-art training for our officials, which gives strength to our further efforts.
So, we are days away from the moment when we are the first in the Western Balkans to step forward and establish a normative framework, harmonized with the norms of the most advanced democratic community that is our model – the European Union.
In order to complete the system, we have one more step left, which we eagerly await. That the Parliament of Montenegro pass the new Law on Information Security, which the Government submitted to the parliamentary procedure back in May.
With the new law, we will be even more resilient, we will also have a state agency for cyber security and a fully rounded system for early detection and defense against cyber threats. This is in the interest of the whole society, all our citizens, our economy, which has critical infrastructure, our economy, because all investors will feel safer in such an environment that they are used to in successful countries. Our European path will thus be even more successful, because this Act is part of the negotiated Chapter 10, which we expect to close this year.
A cohesive approach in this area is key, and for the success of the journey so far we are grateful to our dedicated employees, the academic and IT community, our foreign partners and especially the Montenegrin media who recognized the dangers and challenges, learned and progressed together with us and responsible professional reporting, without sensationalism, made one of the key contributions to the cyber security of Montenegro. And that’s why this is our joint success, and that’s why today is important for all of us.
And tomorrow, new challenges and new steps await us, even more determined and even bigger.
The author is the Minister of Public Administration in the Government of Montenegro
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(Opinions and views published in the “Columns” section are not necessarily the views of the “Vijesti” editorial office.)