Prime Minister Borissov demands the setting up of a national cybersecurity division

Prime Minister Boyko Borissov issued an order for the setting up of a national cybersecurity division, which should act as an independent institution and will monitor the computer networks of all ministries and other public structures. This was announced during the two-day conference at the Central Military Club - Sofia, organised by the non-governmental organisation Bulgarian Association of the Officers in the Reserve Atlantic (AORA). In fact, this proposal to the Prime Minister was delivered by the Minister of Defense in the middle of last year after he had received several alarming reports by specialists, serving in the NGO.

However, the idea is quite new and its future development is still unclear. The rapporteurs of the conference expressed their dissatisfaction with the negligence of the government institutions over the past ten years in solving the problems of information security. According to the retired general Boyko Simitchiev, who is a former head of Cheif Directorate Communications and Information Systems with the Ministry of Defense, the classified information networks in the Bulgarian Army are exposed to many frauds. Therefore, the military officers are reluctant to share data in them in order to avoid troubles.

In the past ten years, almost every Bulgarian department established its own communication infrastructure and did not rely on NNPA - National Network of Public Administration, which was set up by the former government of Ivan Kostov. The Ministries of Defense, of Interior, of Foreign Affairs, of Transport as well as the major state-owned companies such as NEK (National Electric Company), Bulgargaz, etc. have developed their own optic networks throughout the entire country. However, many of them remain incomplete, though according to some rough estimates, some € 1 bn have been spent on them so far. Besides, the idea for ​​the integration of the systems of all governmental institutions is no longer feasible, since they were built by different companies, based on different hardware and software platforms.

It is a shame that the state administration continues to rely mainly on private telecom companies for data and voice exchange, which costs about BGN 100 mln each Bulgarian taxpayer. This is actually waste of taxpayer's money and corruption, commented the IT-specialists during the forum yesterday.

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