Italy is set to create a national agency that will enable it to fight cyberattacks. A draft decree shows that Italy plans to press ahead with its plans to build a unified cloud infrastructure that will ensure security is tightened for public administration data storage.
The country is among several European Union states that are increasing their efforts to deal with cyber-attacks. They are not only seen as a security threat, but also a phenomenon that undermines competitiveness in an increasingly digital world.
What’s in the draft?
The decree, which was seen by Reuters, unifies many digital security aspects under the authority of the country’s prime minister. Currently, these powers are dispersed among several ministers and state agencies. The general director and his deputy will be appointed at intervals of four years, according to the draft. Their mandate can be renewed only once.
Under the agency, there will be six departments and initially, about 300 employees, which will be expanded to 800 people by 2027. Italy’s cabinet is expected to approve the decree this week.
How soon till approval
It is expected that Italy’s cabinet will approve the decree this week, according to a political source that spoke to Reuters. Italy has written a 2500-page recovery plan that was sent to the European Commission in April and envisages cloud technology for public administration to bolster security.
The plan details investments to be funded by Brussels, earmarked at around $1.10 billion. Innovation Minister Vittorio Colao said last month that the project would involve overseas tech companies.
Europe is concerned by American tech companies’ domination of almost all markets and how easily they could surveil everyone using the U.S. CLOUD Act of 2018. For that reason, the bloc is focused on making tech homegrown.
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