“Defending public bodies means defending individual citizens”: the Police Commissioner of Bologna Antonio Sbordone underlined this concept by signing this morning in the offices of the Police Headquarters a memorandum of understanding which links the Operational Center for Cyber Security – Emilia Romagna Postal Police, and the ANCI Emilia Romagna, represented by their respective leaders, the Director Cristina Fagone and the Vice President Filippo Giorgetti. The initiative is part of a broader project which in July 2023 led the State Police and the ANCI to sign the framework agreement “Pro-c2si project” for the cybersecurity of Italian municipalities.
On this point, the Police Commissioner of Bologna, Antonio Sbordone, declared that today’s signing is undoubtedly a source of satisfaction: “Network security is today one of the priorities for public bodies, companies and citizens. We are aware of the pitfalls associated with increasingly sophisticated criminal activities that we must deal with in order to equip ourselves and implement effective counteractions. But there is no doubt that the synergy and collaboration between organizations and institutions is an essential value, to be increasingly safeguarded and enhanced. This protocol therefore goes in the direction we must all hope for.”
“The 330 municipalities of Emilia-Romagna ensure services of primary importance that could be attacked for economic reasons: to fight them we must network” – Police Commissioner Antonio Sbordone
“The State Police, through the Postal Police, is committed on a daily basis to ensuring the integrity and functionality of the IT network of the country’s strategic level structures through the CNAIPIC, which makes use of the NOSCs, present in each regional COSC. In this context, cooperation between entities is fundamental, which agree to share information and best practices, to face the ever-increasing challenges of cybersecurity and to guarantee the security of the territory, its economic and social system which is increasingly dependent on computerized systems.” thus concluded the COSC Director Cristina FagoneFirst Director of the State Police – VIDEO
Over 300 municipalities store citizen data and public service systems
At a regional level, the agreement aims to share and analyze information suitable for preventing and countering attacks or damage to the IT infrastructures of local authorities, allowing the adoption of intervention procedures and an exchange of information useful for the implementation and raising of standards of cyber security; among the specific purposes is to prevent illicit activities related to cyber attacks, with particular attention to the possible compromise of data, ensuring an intervention that can guarantee continuity in public utility services.
The protocol also provides for the carrying out of joint training activities on systems and technologies suitable for combating computer crimes in order to create a know-how structured and updated with the latest threats. The initiative, which is part of the consolidated “participatory” security model, aims to further strengthen the network in the area which already sees the Postal Police engaged in the protection of computerized infrastructures through effective partnerships with other bodies and institutional actors, as well as qualified exponents of the entrepreneurial reality of the Region.
The Vice President of ANCI Emilia-Romagna, Filippo Giorgetti, declared “’We always welcome with great pleasure, but also with a spirit of effective collaboration, partnership proposals from entities at various levels involving municipalities. In particular, cyber security is an important issue, both in the daily management of public bodies increasingly linked to the telematic and digital world, and above all in terms of privacy, the protection of sensitive data and the efficiency of the same services provided to citizens. I therefore consider today to be significant and the document we are signing today to be positive.’”
