Last Wednesday 12th November at the Chamber of Deputies, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto responded to inquiries about defining a plan for reaching defense spending goals agreed upon in NATO, increasing the number of military personnel designated for the “Safe Roads” operation, and initiatives to strengthen the national capacity to prevent and counter so-called hybrid threats, especially referring to drone incursions in the airspace.
Regarding this latter point, Minister Crosetto wanted to expand the discussion to the issue of fighting and defending in the cyber domain.
The Defense Minister defined the cyber threat as a hybrid type, capable of constantly striking at all hours of the day and night, causing crises in critical infrastructure and essential services with serious repercussions on the economy and daily life.
For Minister Crosetto, it is therefore necessary that Italy equip itself with appropriate defenses against such a highly invasive threat.
In this sense, the Defense Minister, following in the footsteps of the initiatives undertaken and the experience gained by the Armed Forces, intends to start the formation of a cyber force which initially will have a staff of 1,200 – 1,500 men and women, and will ensure defense in cyberspace, identify real-time threats by inhibiting or preventing them, where technical times allow it.
Alongside this Force or new component that will be placed among the topics of the Armed Forces reform, a ‘Hybrid’ War Center will also be established aimed at countering the so-called cognitive and informational war increasingly used by hostile forces to create fake news, discredit and foster chaos.
Obviously, Minister Crosetto deems it necessary to intervene in the regulatory framework to allow the cyber sector to operate promptly and in full compliance with the laws in force.
Also on the cybersecurity front, it’s worth mentioning the intervention of the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy (MIMIT) that with a decree assigns €50 million, coming from Pnrr funds, to the eight national high-specialization centers that support national companies in hi-tech projects and cybersecurity.
In addition, MIMIT will assign another €25 million to research centers dealing with digital innovation.
Photo credit @Italian Army
