The cybersecurity of the Republic of Moldova should represent a priority for the Moldovan authorities, said experts in cybersecurity. According to them, the protection of government data and the data of private companies is extremely important, especially in the context of the war in Ukraine. They noted the adoption of the Digital Transformation Strategy will provide a concrete action plan for preventing cyber-attacks and will enable state institutions to respond to such attacks, IPN reports.
Natalia Spînu, executive director of the European Institute for Political Studies, said that Moldova’s cybersecurity is part of the national security and contains actions to protect data and information. Cybersecurity is currently not regulated by law and this makes Moldova increasingly vulnerable.
“There is no centralized approach to this problem. Each institution copes on its own either it goes to ministries, agencies or private institutions. It happens so because there is no legislative framework aligned to the European legislation. That’s why we should hurry to adopt this law. We should have an institution at national level, which would support the public and private institutions, if they were attacked or need assistance. We, security experts, lay emphasis rather on prevention than on response, when an incident already occurred. The presence of a legal framework would make the institutions respect the cybersecurity rules. The imposition of penalties is also very important. As long as no penalties are imposed, I don’t think we will manage to increase the security level of institutions,” Natalia Spînu stated in the program “Parallel 47” on Radio Moldova station.
The Digital Transformation Strategy of the Republic of Moldovan contains aspects concerning cybersecurity. The document is now being debated publicly. According to expert in digitalization policies Victor Guzun, the strategy has several key objectives, namely: ensuring of a competitive ICT environment, a resilient digital economy and a safe digital environment for everyone.
“The red line of this digital transformation strategy is that each citizen should benefit from cybersecurity. We do not speak about cybersecurity only from the perspective of the authorities, but also from the perspective of each entity, each local public administration and each citizen. We are all responsible for energy security. The security of the Republic of Moldova and its critical infrastructure should be protected. Building of capacities to identify, detect, respond to and recover after cyber threats is another desideratum. We want a data protection system to be created so as to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of data,” said Victor Guzun.
The Digital Transformation Strategy of the Republic of Moldova is a framework document designed with the assistance of foreign partners. It presents the Government’s view on digital development and cybersecurity for 2023-2030.