International NRD cyber security team organised the first cyber security conference of such kind in Lithuania -“Cyber defence Lithuania 2013”.

European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) had announced October 2013 to be the first fully-fledged European Cyber Security Month. In celebration of this occasion, cyber security advocacy, educational and good practice sharing events took place all across Europe. On the 25th of October more than 100 IT security professionals attended “Cyber Defence Lithuania 2013” conference in Vilnius in order to encourage public awareness of cyber security issues in Lithuania and improve their preparedness to defend against cyber attacks.

The conference was organised by international NRD Cyber Security Team. Mr Sebastian Marondo, CEO of Norway Registers Development East Africa Ltd., was one of the guest speakers at the event. He introduced the participants to the framework of Critical Controls for Effective Cyber Defence. “Despite the rise in cybercrime rates in recent years as well as increasing sophistication of cyber attacks, many organisations still underestimate the importance of cyber hygiene and appropriate technologies. The goal of critical controls is to protect critical assets, infrastructure, and information by strengthening your organization’s defensive posture through continuous, automated protection and monitoring of your sensitive information technology infrastructure to reduce compromises, minimize the need for recovery efforts, and lower associated costs”, said Mr Marondo.

In August NRD Cyber Security Team organised a conference on cyber security in Tanzania. “Cyber Defence East Africa 2013 was very successful and we received many complaints that we do not do something like this in Lithuania”, said Dr Vilius Benetis, CEO of NRD CS.

The importance of data security and IT infrastructure’s availability has been rising in East Africa due to rapid growth of region’s banking industry and rise in mobile money transactions. The number, sophistication and amounts involved in fraud incidents have increased. Meanwhile European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) has identified the rise in threats to infrastructure through targeted attacks, mobile devices, and social media identity thefts carried out by cyber-criminals over Cloud services.

“Despite the differences in the nature of cybercrimes and the ways various governments choose to deal with them, interconnectedness of the world means that cybercrime is a global issue, never restrained to one particular country or region. Generally, lack of public awareness of cyber security issues, lack of methods, tools and practical definitions for proper security management and effective defence are the weakest links in the fight against cyber criminals. Therefore, we decided to organise Cyber Defence Lithuania 2013”, said Dr Vilius Benetis, CEO of NRD CS.

Cyber Defence Lithuania 2013″ was attended by presenters from Poland, Hungary, East Africa and Lithuania. They reviewed the trends of cyber security, introduced effective, prioritised guidelines for cyber security governance, based on defence experience of the NSA, US Cert, Department of State, DoD Cyber Crime Center and others (“Critical Security Controls”), and demonstrate technologies for risk management, log analysis and remote access monitoring, to mention a few. Cyber-attack simulation was broadcasted from Brussels, showcasing 3 different types of attacks, both from the hacker side and from the security team member side. Ways to defend against such attacks were explained. During the practice session – incident communication simulation – participants were taught to respond appropriately to cyber security incidents. Think-tanks and informal meetings were also an integral part of the conference. Their purpose was to strengthen cyber security on both organisational and national levels by developing a community of IT professionals from business, science and public sectors.

As a part of the conference, the team also facilitated an informal, voluntary Cyber Security Experts’ Forum (KSEF) Meeting, organised by the Communications Regulatory Authority. According to the organisers, it has been decided to do both events under one roof in order to encourage public and private sector cooperation in creating a safer digital space in Lithuania. KSEF participants shared expert views on Cyber Security realities in the EU context.

NRD Cyber Security Team works with all CERTs in Lithuania, and since 2008, by the invitation of Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence, has been an active member in developing Lithuanian national cyber security strategy. At the moment, the team is assisting in the implementation of the Electronic Information Security Development 2011-2019 program. Together with ISACA Tanzania Chapter, the team is developing a consultative Tanzanian Cyber Security Framework and plans to implement it in the public and private sectors. Team’s specialists are also authors and subject matter expert reviewers of international academic publications, such as “Transforming Cybersecurity: Using COBIT® 5” (ISACA), “Responding to targeted Cyber attacks” (ISACA), COBIT adaptation in Lithuania.

Conference video can be found here: http://youtu.be/MJt-H9u_sz8