Romania needs a specialized agency that should employ IT experts on a dedicated pay grid, and be able to second them to work with the Government when needed, Communications Minister Augustin Jianu on Tuesday told a conference devoted to Communications Day.
“We are currently working on a Digital Services and Cloud Computing Strategy, which will propose a very simple and concrete solution, so that we no longer be trailing in the European Union. Once the strategy is completed, and I hope this happens this month, we will publish it on the site and we’ll wait for the [industry’s] input. Cloud is a necessity that can be developed through a public-private partnership. Regarding the pay of the IT experts in the public sector, I believe that the public-private partnership would solve the issue in the long run. However, in the short term we need to find the solution to remunerate the experts who work with the Government. My opinion is that everything should be bundled in an agency and there should be a specific pay grid. If a public institution has a need, this agency will second a person to provide support. Practically there should be a service hub for the government area,” Jianu said.
Regarding Romania’s capacity to deflect cyber-attacks, the Communications Minister said a response plan must be set in place, but there should be also an indicator to measure cyber security.
“According to the latest CERT-RO report, three million Romanian IPs were involved in cyber incidents in 2016. We are not faring great at national level, because we don’t have an indicator to measure cyber security. There’s no such indicator at global level either. From the perspective of public institutions, it’s not just them that are targeted the most, but all online resources are vulnerable and prone to being attacked, whether we are talking about a smart fridge or an industrial resource,” the minister said.
Representatives of public telecommunication institutions, telecom operators and providers of communications solutions as well as top IT & C companies are attending on Tuesday the event “Communications Day – Digital Transformation through Telecommunications” organized in Bucharest. The conference, now in its 21st year, is accompanied by a show where practical demonstrations and technology presentations take place.