Cyber threats are no longer virtual, they are “spillover“ into the real world – stopping the activities of hospitals, transport systems, factories, public services. The question is no longer whether, but how societies can be resilient to these combined hybrid crises. New approaches are needed that combine cybersecurity, civil protection, technological independence and crisis preparedness. This was stated by the Minister of e-Government Valentin Mundrov to his colleagues at the Council of the European Union on Transport, Telecommunications and Energy, which was held in Brussels.
“Bulgaria believes that sharing experience with the Member States is key – accelerates the response, reduces systemic risk, increases trust in the system, builds a pan-European culture of resilience”, said Valentin Mundrov.
According to Minister Mundrov, in recent years our country has gained valuable experience from various cyber incidents in the financial, healthcare, telecommunications and administrative sectors. “These incidents revealed various vulnerabilities in integrated coordination. Therefore, a key element of protection is sharing - this does not mean revealing sensitive weaknesses, but exchanging key elements – technical indicators, operational information and lessons learned. Cyberattacks with real consequences have clearly shown that no sector or country can protect itself independently”, the Minister of e-Government also emphasized.
”In Bulgaria, there is still work to be done to build a culture of trust and a more active exchange of information at the national level. However, at the European level, we are already working at a more intensive pace – every two weeks information on the cyber situation in the Member States is shared. Bulgaria regularly cooperates and exchanges data with the CyCLONe network and supports enhanced sharing through pan-European platforms such as MeliCERTes and automated exchange tools (STIX/TAXII)”, informed Valentin Mundorv.
The agenda of the EU Council meeting in the “Telecommunications“ were also the topics of European competitiveness in the Digital Decade, the possibilities for simplifying digital legislation, the implementation of the Digital Services Act with regard to online platforms and e-commerce, and others.
Regarding the Digital Services Act, the Bulgarian minister was categorical that it has a positive impact on the transparency of platforms, but at the same time, stricter and coordinated supervision of many of the large online platforms is needed.
Minister Mundrov also expressed the position that digital sovereignty in an open manner, as enshrined in the political program “Digital Decade“, defining the main objectives of the Union in the digital field, is a way to increase competitiveness, autonomy and strengthen the single digital market.