- Carlos San Juan, promoter of the initiative “Soy Mayor, no idiota”: “We, the elderly, are unprotected against cyber-attacks”.
- Enrique Pérez de Tena, from the Joint Cyberspace Command – Defense Staff (EMAD), states that “a single cyber-attack can paralyze a nation”.
- Vicente González, Cybersecurity Expert at ENISA, considers that in the field of cybersecurity “Spain is a benchmark to follow in Europe”.
The people who are most vulnerable to cyber-attacks and the help provided by national and European security forces and members of the security forces have been the protagonists of this first virtual day of CSI Radar. The European Cybersecurity Agency (ENISA), the Joint Cyberspace Command of the Ministry of Defense, the Guardia Civil, the National Police and the Local Police have talked about how they help citizens in the face of possible crimes on the net. Carlos San Juan spoke about the elderly; Aitor Fernández from AEVAC and Víctor Jiménez from Eurecat about hacking and the vulnerability of people; and Judge Alfonso Peralta put the finishing touch to this day. Also the Universities of Seville and Malaga and Communities such as Cisorverso or Isaca have approached their different points of view in the cybersecurity sector.
“I receive messages every day pretending to be my bank”.
Carlos San Juan, promoter of the campaign “I’m old, not an idiot”, has talked about the lack of protection of the elderly against cyber-attacks: “We feel vulnerable. I receive messages every day pretending to be from my bank, but we don’t bite anymore,” says San Juan, who asks: “Why is it that in the event of a hacking, the damaged customer is not backed by bank insurance? We are unprotected against a cyberattack,” he said. He also concluded by saying that “recently a man had his card pin copied at an ATM and 800 euros were taken from him. The elderly are bait for hackers.
The situation of senior citizens is delicate in terms of digitalization. “There are people who live alone and when they hear all this, they close themselves off because they are afraid“. In addition to this he considers that “those of us who are willing to learn feel unprotected“. One of the problems that San Juan has focused on the most is bullying on the Internet. “It scares me for my granddaughters too.”
We are going to regret it: Many home devices are insecure.
Aitor Fernandez, President and Co-Founder of the Spanish Association of the Connected Autonomous Vehicle (AEVAC), has left reflections on the situation that blind people like him are living: “Many IoT devices are being launched without any security. We are going to regret it.”
“The most critical thing is the access problems. There is quite a lot of insecurity depending on the type of technology we use. When it comes to electronic locks, when there’s a problem and you can’t solve it physically, you get into big trouble. We are in a compromised situation if we are talking about visual information systems,” says Fernandez.
Connected vehicles, easy for cybercriminals to hack?
For his part, Víctor Jiménez, IT&OT Security Researcher and SELFY Technical Coordinator at EURECAT, explained what the ‘SELFY’ project is about and talked about the progress that connected vehicles are experiencing. “The connected vehicle is an asset for society, although it implies an effort in security, as it can be hacked by an external party and this could involve the loss of human lives.”
“A single cyber attack can paralyze an entire nation.”
Faced with the situation that we can all feel vulnerable to a cyberattack, the State Security Forces and Corps and various institutions at national and European level have talked about how they help in this sector to all citizens. Enrique Pérez de Tena, Head of International Relations and Cooperation of the Joint Cyberspace Command – EMAD has talked about the operations carried out in Cyberspace. “Anyone can be a potential enemy. Worst of all, a cyber attack can cripple a nation.” “We are constantly at war. We get 2000 attacks a day, of which, last year, we had 2200 that we were concerned about and worked on more. As far as we know, we are still safe,” reveals Pérez de Tena.
“Spain is a benchmark to follow in Europe”.
The European Cybersecurity Agency (ENISA) has counted on the participation of Vicente González and Adrían Belmonte, Cybersecurity Experts. González affirms that in cybersecurity, Spain can be in third place. “The work being done by INCIBE is being used as an example. In Europe we are a reference“. For his part, Belmonte said that “Spain has been one of the most advanced countries and has one of the highest numbers of incident management. It is a spearhead in cybersecurity issues”.
“The lack of training and information are the main causes of cybercrime”.
José Luis Gómez, First Corporal, Head of the ‘@’ Team of the Seville Civil Guard Command, has explained the function of the ‘@’ team: “It is dedicated to technological crimes and specifically to fraud crimes”. “The lack of information and training in cybersecurity in companies and citizens are the main causes of cybercrime,” says Gomez.
Lucía López, Inspector of the Technological Crimes Group, spoke on behalf of the National Police: “Computer fraud represents almost 90% of crimes. Time is what determines security. With enough time nothing is unhackable“.
On the other hand, the Local Police of Seville has also participated with Antonio Barea, Deputy Inspector and Head of Social Networks: “Cyberspace is an ideal place for the detection of threats. The presence of the Local Police in social networks favors a cybersecurity approach in the closest environment”.
Alfonso Peralta, Judge of the Court of First Instance and Instruction No. 2 of Guadix of the Judiciary, has exposed that AI can be of use to the judicial system. “There are not going to be robot judges but there will be ‘robot-justice’. In the bureaucracy there are many repetitive systems with little added value, but that require a lot of time and that could be automated.”
International associations and leading universities in cybersecurity
The University of Malaga has intervened through Dr. Emil J. Khatib, who explained the importance of EDT (Early Data Transmission): “5G technology is the basis of the next generation of wireless services and the Internet of Things (IoT). It is necessary to analyze possible vulnerabilities to make it 100% secure”.
On behalf of the University of Seville, Rafael Estepa, Director of the Master’s Degree in Information and Communications Security, was the protagonist: “We have several paths for training in this sector: self-training, the use of certifications and university degrees”.
Víctor Aznar, CEO and Founder of CISOVERSO, presented this community aimed at cybersecurity experts: “We are currently in contact with more than 300 CISOs and 800 professionals in the cybersecurity sector from all over Spain”.
Ramsés Gallego, ISACA (Information Systems Audit and Control Association) Evangelist has affirmed that “as there are more and more platforms, new applications and clouds, the entrance doors to our digital castle are multiplying“.
All the conferences of this day and those of the entire event can be followed on ‘The Observatory’, a platform launched by Medina Media Events. This first edition of ‘CSI Radar’ is promoted by Telefónica Tech, Sevilla City Office and FIBES, and has the support of AWS, Proofpoint, Huawei, ZTE, IBM, Cremades & Calvo-Sotelo and ‘El Observatorio’.