Speaking to Lusa, the head of CIONET in Portugal, a leading community of senior digital and Information and Communication Technologies executives from around the world, states that these are the two main reasons why we have witnessed several cyberattacks in recent months in companies and public bodies, the last of which happened to Social Security yesterday (21 November).

For Rui Gonçalves, the first dimension has to do with an educational issue, stressing that in Portugal there is a lack of a national “educational strategy” with companies and public bodies, in order to inform and sensitise employees to respect the safety guidelines, with a view to protecting IT systems.

“[Disrespecting these guidelines] is opening a door for intrusion and for a set of possible attacks”, warns this person in charge of CIONET in Portugal.

Rui Gonçalves calls on employees to use the technologies of the places where they work only and exclusively within the “ecosystems” of the respective companies on a daily basis and not for any other use.

The other aspect is related to the investment that this person in charge of CIONET in Portugal defends must exist by companies and public bodies, in the sense of “strengthening” the systems and making them more effective and resistant to cyberattacks.

In this sense, Rui Gonçalves regrets the fact that, for example, the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) does not include a support line for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises so that they could invest in strengthening the security of their computer and security systems.