Kosovo soon with Cyber Security Agency

It is soon expected to function the Cyber Security Agency under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which aims to monitor and prevent various cyber attacks in Kosovo. That is what the director of the Department for Handling Systems and Communications at the Ministry of Interior Artan Dresaj made known to Radio Kosovo. While experts on this issue say there are currently increasing attacks with intelligent motives.

Kosovo has sometimes been the target of cyber attacks, where in 2018 the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Foreign Affairs reported on such attacks, while even in 2022, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has had cyber attacks. For establishing professional capacities to protect against these cyberattacks, Kosovo's Assembly has also adopted the Cyber Security Law, which has opened the way for the establishment of the Cyber Security Agency.

But this agency has not yet been functional, until the director of the Department for Management Systems and Communications at the Ministry of Interior Affairs, Artan Dresaj, told Radio Kosovo that it will soon be functional. He stressed that threats and attacks are ongoing against information systems, but that according to him, Kosovo has drafted capacities and policies to create a safe cyberspace within the state.

The “have been finalised by two very important sublaw acts that connect to the establishment of the Cyber Security Agency, which will be the national executive agency, which will care for and monitor the implementation of minimal security measures by all entities. In this case, it will focus on critical national infrastructure. The regulation has already been structured and approved by the prime minister. We are currently working on the description of jobs, so it will be the new executive agency, with new capacities intended to monitor and prevent various cyber attacks”, Artan Dresaj said.

And according to cyber security expert Mentor Hoxhaj, the attacks are mainly oriented towards state and public institutions. But he made it known that there is now an increase in intelligent attacks.

This has been about 8 percent in the past, where 92 to 96 percent of total attacks have been financially motivated along with intelligent motive. The intelligent motive is now going 20-30 percent. Intelligent attacks are attacks that are motivated by sponsor states where hackers carry out attacks, may be groups paid or built inside, groups paid by the state, where there have been attacks from Russia, China and in the past, even from Korea”, Hoxhaj said.

Under the policies and establishment of institutional mechanisms, there is also the establishment of the Cyber Security Training Centre in the Ministry of Defence, which will be aimed at training and building capacities for all staff who will handle management and management of information systems.