The National Intelligence Service (NIS) is acquiring a new state-of-the-art tool for cybersecurity and the protection of the state from cyberattacks, with the creation of a Cybersecurity Operations Center, which will operate from September (24 hours a day, 7 days a week), according to official information from senior executives.
The corrected telegram follows:
According to EYP, this project completes a complex network of initiatives, through which the Service assumes a central coordinating role in protecting all state bodies from cyberattacks, while at the same time strengthening the country's position, as it is equipped and strengthened with cutting-edge technologies and tools, harmonized with international standards.
The Cybersecurity Operations Center (SOC – Security Operation Center) will operate in the Cyberspace Directorate of EYP and will be responsible for monitoring, detecting and responding to cyber threats and security breaches of state digital infrastructures of the country. In essence, it will complement the actions of the Cyberattack Response Team of EYP, which operates to support all state agencies in matters related to the prevention, early warning and response to cyberattacks. In this way, the role of the Service as the National Cyberattack Response Authority (NATIONAL CERT) is strengthened.
To achieve its mission, as reported by the competent officials of the service, the SOC will have the most modern technologies available internationally and will be staffed with the "cream of the crop", as they say, of the IT specialists of the Service itself, as well as the most specialized from various other state agencies that will be transferred to EYP, while a competition will also proceed for the recruitment of new ones, with particularly strict criteria and requirements. At the same time, a special program will be run for the training of executives from other public sector agencies, in order to integrate them into a system with the same language and communication codes of EYP, so that any cyberattacks can be dealt with immediately and effectively.
As these executives explain, the NATIONAL CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) is one of the four pillars of Cybersecurity, with the mission of securing the sensitive information systems of the Central Administration, monitoring threats, such as DDOS attack attempts, and at the same time, it will have control over any attempted cyberattack on the sensitive systems of the central Greek government.
Specifically, the SOC comes to fill the gap that exists in the field of Cybersecurity in the country's Central Administration and to shield Cybersecurity in Greece.
The remaining three pillars of the Cybersecurity sector of the Hellenic National Security Agency are:
The National INFOSEC (Information Security) Authority, which provides advice, instructions and technical assistance to public bodies on issues of communications security and all classified systems, networks and information, as well as the promotion of policies for security measures and their inviolable operation, whether mobile or landline phones, and the treatment of malicious actions with the use of special software.
The National Authority TEMPEST (Telecommunication Electronics Material Protected from Emanating Spurious Transmissions), which is responsible for dealing with attacks on information systems through leaks, including electrical, magnetic and acoustic signals and vibrations, i.e. it ensures the shielding of spaces so that neither conversations nor communications can leak using systems of special specifications and equipment.
And finally, the National CRYPTO Authority, which supports the State and the Armed Forces in matters of cryptography, produces national codes and national keys and, at the same time, issues security policies regarding the use of all types of cryptographic products, evaluates and certifies cryptographic systems.
