Grande-Marlaska advocates promoting a culture of cybersecurity as “everyone's job”
The ministers of Interior and Science, Innovation and Universities in attendance have attended the beginning of the final phase of the First National Interuniversity League of challenges in Cyberspace, organized by the Civil Guard
Grande-Marlaska has defended the security and education binomial to fight cybercrime
More than 500 university students have tested their technical capabilities and their legal and communication skills to face a possible cyber challenge
15 public universities from all over Spain and relevant private sector companies have collaborated
Acting Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska and Acting Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Pedro Duque, have attended this morning at the beginning of the final phase of the first National Interuniversity League of challenges in Cyberspace (National Cyberleague), which organizes the Civil Guard at the University Center of the Civil Guard in Aranjuez (Madrid).
Grande-Marlaska has congratulated the Civil Guard for promoting these types of initiatives that "by merging youth and universities with concepts such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and the Internet, demonstrate knowledge of the present and sensitivity for the future." He has advocated in this regard for a "genuine" cybersecurity culture that requires talent, creativity and imaginative solutions and, therefore, "is everyone's job."
The General Director of the Civil Guard, Félix Azón, and the Mayor of Aranjuez, María José Martínez; among other authorities, they have also gathered at this interuniversity meeting.
The acting Interior Minister has highlighted the potential of the Internet and cyberspace "creating wealth, employment and opportunities", while warning of its pernicious use as a vehicle for the commission of crimes in the virtual field. He referred in this regard to the statistics prepared by the Secretary of State for Security that indicate that cybercriminality represents 7% of all criminal activity, compared to 2% 7 years ago.
Grande-Marlaska has explained that this increase is largely due to the growth of electronic commerce and transactions. Specifically, it has pointed out that there has been a 321.6% increase in online scams, from 21,075 committed in 2011 compared to 88,854 in 2018.
The acting Minister of the Interior has defended in this regard the policy that the Government is carrying out with regard to security and, in particular, the Ministry of the Interior so that all citizens can freely exercise their fundamental rights in any field, including Cyberspace.
Grande-Marlaska has stressed that the Interior activity is not limited to responding to incidents, but "aspires to be a reference" for citizens and businesses when requesting help and advice to their security concerns in this New virtual space With this objective, he has announced that the Department he directs has proposed, in the framework of the National Cybersecurity Strategy, approved by the Government on April 12, the implementation of a Cybersecurity Master Plan focused on the scope of its competences.
Security and education against cybercrime
With the collaboration of relevant companies and within the university field and of institutes where Higher Degree Formative Cycles are taught, the competition has taken place between the months of September and November in 15 public universities throughout Spain. These have acted as open offices, oriented to the detection of talent, with two modalities of participation: individual or team challenges.
Each day of the League has been divided into two parts. In the first one, experts in this matter of the Civil Guard, the university and the collaborating companies have given conferences and workshops of free access dedicated mainly to the orientation for employment. The second part has consisted of a practical exercise on a multidisciplinary cyber challenge.
After the completion of the qualifying meetings, in which a total of 535 university and vocational students of Higher Degree have participated, aged between 18 and 26, 100 participants have qualified for the final. The selected ones have started today the final phase accompanied by a group of mentors, with whom they have worked reinforcing their “cyber skills”, before the final competition.
Likewise, the II International Conference on Cyberintelligence of the Civil Guard that, in collaboration with the Autonomous University of Madrid and under the title "Artificial Intelligence as an evolution in the generation of Cyberintelligence" has started, has the presence of leading international authorities on the subject, and is open to all participants.
