Josu Erkoreka welcomes the participants of the “68th TF-CSIRT Meeting & 2023 FIRST Regional Symposium Europe” international congress on cybersecurity

• The meeting is set to bring together international security and incident response professionals for three days in Bilbao
• In 2023 the Basque Government will create the Basque Cybersecurity Agency to unify the strategy and management of resources against digital threats.

The Vice-Lehendakari and Minister for Security, Josu Erkoreka, accompanied by the Deputy Minister for Security, Rodrigo Gartzia, and the Director of IT and Telecommunications, Olatz Arabiourrutia, welcomed tonight, at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the professionals attending the international congress “68th TF-CSIRT Meeting & 2023 FIRST Regional Symposium Europe”, hosted by the Basque CyberSecurity Centre. Over three days, the latest developments in the cybersecurity sector will be discussed, aimed at security and incident response teams.

During his speech, Erkoreka highlighted the Basque Government’s long-standing commitment to everything related to cybersecurity and the importance of collaborating at an international level to address the digital risks that threaten public security. An example of this is the creation in 2017 of the Basque CyberSecurity Centre to respond to digital threats affecting companies and the competitive and innovative capacity of Basque Country industry, in addition to the constant work of the Ertzaintza’s Computer Crime Unit to protect citizens from cybercrime.

In this regard, the Vice-Lehendakari and Minister for Security announced that in the coming months the Basque CyberSecurity Centre will become the Basque Cybersecurity Agency to bring together the common strategy and management of existing resources and initiatives and raise the level of protection of the public sector, citizens and the Basque business community.

In line with this evolution, Erkoreka also pointed out that the Ertzaintza is already working on adapting its investigation processes, optimising its organisation to enhance collaboration against cybercrime, attracting and retaining specialised personnel, adopting cutting-edge technology and extending a culture of cybersecurity prevention in the Basque Country.

FORUM OF INCIDENT RESPONSE AND SECURITY TEAMS (FIRST)

Since 2018, the Basque CyberSecurity Centre has been a member of the Forum of Security and Incident Response Teams (FIRST), an initiative that brings together more than 650 incident response teams from all over the world, both public and private, from a wide range of sectors such as: administration, health, finance, energy, research, transport, etc.

The main objectives of the initiative are to foster coordination and cooperation, and to share best practices in incident response in order to be as efficient as possible and to mitigate the impact of incidents.