What is the state of play of the National Cybersecurity Agency ? Start Magazine What is there beyond the joyful trumpet blasts for the salvific installation of the heads of the Cyber Agency? The comment of Umberto Rapetto, director of Infosec.news The computer systems of half the world are put to the sword (the other half has either already been "cooked" or is about to be) and in our part the problem – like the fact in certain judgments – "does not exist". The demonstration is evident even if it may seem not very indicative. I know entrepreneurs who don't care about the web and consultants who leave their site empty to discourage interlocutors because – already full of work – they do not want unnecessary engagements. A public entity, however, cannot afford the luxury of not providing information to the community, because that presence gives the sense of the protection of contexts that for many are crucial or in any case such as to determine legitimate concerns. Knowing that there are those who think about it is important, even in a scenario that like cybersecurity has not yet risen to the rank of "serious stuff". Those who want to know more and want to avoid the bewitching melodies of those who at all costs want / must sell products and services, would like to be guided by the realities that in the State have the delicate function of coordinating every effort aimed at preserving Italy from bad hi-tech surprises. Despite the joyful trumpet sounds for the salvific installation of the top management of the Cyber Agency and for the decisive memorandum of understanding with the Guarantor Authority for the Protection of Personal Data, those who reach www.acn.gov.it discover that "The site for national cybersecurity is about to arrive", as announced by the opening banner of the web page. The most stubborn do not give up and dig inside. The only "nuggets" of this mine are a handful of tweets, largely commercial, that refer to reports or discoveries not attributable to research carried out by national public resources. Someone carefully reads the "timetable", where the calendar is combined with the planned initiatives. At a certain point – as in Dario Argento's films – the topical moment of fear and the hope that it is just fiction arrives ... To function the Agency certainly needs specialists and experts who – with the exception of the Director General and the Deputy Director General – are not there. The "end of the first recruitment phase" is in fact scheduled for December 31, 2023... On the ACN homepage it is clearly written that "Following the definition of the implementing regulations, the program to strengthen the staff of the National Cybersecurity Agency starts, which sees the integration by the end of 2023 of 300 units to support the development of the activities envisaged by the Agency". Despite the indisputable urgency to find and select digital "praetorians", the goal of having adequate "troops" is positioned 23 months from today... The cluster of alarming news that flood daily does not seem to interfere with institutional imperturbability, almost as if the continuous computer disasters did not take place and there was no irrepressible urgency to be ready to face a challenge already underway. December 2023? But yes, what care is there? Indeed. The most learned do not hesitate to immediately cite the story of the hasty cat who made blind cats ... Calmly, therefore. I recommend, proceed calmly. Those 300 places (and the others that will come) are to be centellinare. The remuneration will be equal to that of Bankitalia and the sponsorship mechanisms of this or that candidate cannot fail to take it into account. December 2023? No, the "recruiting" will take place first and will not be due to a sudden discovery of the urgency in place or a mature sensitivity to the issue of cybersecurity. The spring of 2023 with its electoral consultations and with the usual dynamics of those political seasons will surely make the list of the chosen ones bloom in advance. The imminence of the popular call to the polls sometimes knows how to give unpredictable accelerations.
Article published on infosec.news
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