22 September 2016
Madrid Headquarters
The magistrate judge of the National Court and Director of the Cybersecurity Innovation Programme, Eloy Velasco; the Joint Commander in Chief of Cyber Defence, Carlos Gómez Lopez de Medina and the Secretary or the National Cybersecurity Board, María del Mar López Gil, gave their opinions on the importance of the training needed to face the key challenges arising from the increasing number of cyber threats.
The Joint Commander in Chief of Cyber Defence added that any computer system can be hacked and he mentioned the key role that training plays while stating that the weakest point of any system is the human factor. “The user is the weakest link, which means awareness is vital. Users don’t realise that they are the most dangerous element. For this reason, at the Joint Command of Cyber Defence, we concentrate on training our staff, at our own centres and with universities”.
María del Mar López Gil expresses a similar opinion, adding that cyberattacks are a risk to national security and are increasing in number and complexity. In 2015, cyber attacks increased by 180% over the previous year and she highlighted the fact that technology has not been developed for security. “Cyberspace is not secure. We are facing a number of challenges and we are becoming aware of the scope of this danger", she explained.
The Secretary of the National Cybersecurity Board concluded with the following: “ it is estimated that some 825,000 cybersecurity professionals will be needed in every field by 2025".
The national magistrate judge also pointed out the increase in computer crimes and cyber attacks recorded in the State Attorney’s Office. In the last year alone, 20,000 crimes of this type were tried in court and according to Velasco, about 300 were "extremely serious".
Luc Theis, Director General of Deusto Business School, also spoke at the event, emphasising that cybersecurity is not just a trend. “We will have it on our agendas for many years to come". Co-director of the programme and a specialist attorney in cyber crimes, Rafael Chelala expressed his full agreement: “It is true that the prefix “cyber” will soon disappear because we will simply refer to crimes which are largely shifting to the Internet".
The programme, led by Judge Velasco, consists of ten classes and eight workshops. Experts from different fields will focus on analysing the risks and threats related to technology disruption and how to tackle them from a multidisciplinary perspective; technology, operations and laws.
