Cyber Security and Privacy pose a serious challenge to Kosovo and other countries

20/05/2019

Innovation and technology are rapidly developing and as matter of fact, cyber attacks have proved to be a serious threat to security and privacy in Kosovo, as well as all over the world.

As a result, it is of significant importance to carry out common incentives and closely collaborate with respective institutions and academy. This were the key issues that were highlighted in the International Conference on Cyber Security and Privacy, organized by Cyber Security and Privacy and UBT, as well as supported by the Ministry of Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

 

Since the first day of the initiation of this activity, there has been assembled a large number of institutional representatives from Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia, Bulgaria, as well as representatives from the European Union Agency of Network Security and Information “ENISA” and the most renowned worldwide companies: Facebook, Google and Hacker One.

 

UBT Rector held the opening session of this conference and at the same time emphasized that this event aims to raise awareness among population regarding cyber security and appealed for collaboration to protect from cyber attacks.

“Undoubtedly, this is the most important event and Kosovo deserves such an event. Taking into consideration the large participation of Kosovo in the field of IT, this should be considered a need. This is a serious and demanding issue at the same time. Digitalization process has been subject to a rapid growth and as consequence of this we are experiencing problems even in financial aspects. In cases when there is witnessed a loss of data, more than 40% of them are irreversible. This is a concerning issue which is highly important to be deeply elaborated in order to prevent cyber crimes in the future. Indeed this is attained only by a strong collaboration of Balkan countries with each-other”, underlined Hajrizi.

 

Furthermore, Hajrizi said that UBT has a qualitative education system, it is a science-oriented institution, which is committed to contribute in the improvement of cyber security.

 

 

 

“UBT is accredited in many programs concerning the field of cyber security, offers trainings and has founded CERT. Of course, these are great opportunities for students and these facilities enhance the increase of capacities.” – highlighted Hajrizi.

 

Minister of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Besim Beqaj gave a video presentation from USA where he mainly put the emphasis on creating a secure space for data protection.

“Citizens shall collaborate with institutions and together carry out joint ventures to create a secure environment for data and at the same time protect children who are highly exposed to social networks.” – stated Beqaj.

 

The head of Cyber Security and Privacy, Mentor Hoxhaj said that the main aim of this community is to carry out actions which aid identification of Kosovo in the cyber space. Besides that, he added that country lacks cyber security and privacy standards.

“This is only the beginning and there is still a lot much to do in increasing standards which are worth being implemented into practice. Citizens of Kosovo ought to be identified in cyber space. Kosovo may be exposed to a serious threat if it lacks the identification in cyber space.” – said Hoxhaj.

 

Meanwhile the head of ARKEP Board, Kreshnik Gashi pointed out that cyber-crimes has caused 3 billion dollars to the world, and to make the matter worse, this sum is expected to reach 6 billion dollars in 2021.

“Cyber-crime may affect all spheres of life. Actually nobody is immune to cyber crime. There should be existing a close collaboration in order to have the necessary protection. It is an undeniable truth that from the top ten companies, four of them are oriented to information technology. The youngsters of Kosovo see it as an opportunity to have access in the global market.  Obviously, information technology will be the main focus in future. This conference will positively affect in informing citizens and raising awareness among them.” –  said Gashi.

 

On behalf of this conference, an important speaker was also the representative of Facebook, Gabriella Cseh, who that this network is primarily focused on issues related to data, privacy, human rights, internet, digital market, security in internet and open internet.

 

“Recently Face book and Instagram have been fully engaged to scrutinize these problems from the social perspective. In fact, we have profoundly elaborated these issues by increasing the level of privacy of our users. This is a complex and demanding issue which directly affects users who shall obey the set of rules in order to protect their privacy. During the upcoming years we will improve this aspect even more by finding solutions to these problems”, stated Cseh.

 

The professor of Stanford University, Burton Lee claimed that organizing such conferences help users to become aware of security and privacy.

“This is a global challenge. In the age of digitalization there are witnessed threats in aspects regarding security and privacy and such conference play a crucial role to pinpoint the steps which ought to be taken in this field.” – added Lee.

 

Part of this discussion panel were also Mergim Canhani from Gjirafa, Kujtim Gashi from Agency of Information Society, representatives of Flash Strat- Line Tech, Holger Unterbrink, Kastriot Fetahaj, Ibrahim Kistak, Yasser Ali and Lek Zajmi.