Skopje, 14 November 2024 (MIA) - We cannot allow the pursuit of profit and corruption to destroy the system, particularly in the digital sphere, as this leads to attacks and lost data, harming citizens, Minister of Digital Transformation Stefan Andonovski said.

In a statement to the media ahead of Thursday’s conference, "Business and Government: Aligning for a Secure Digital Future," organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in North Macedonia, Minister Andonovski highlighted two important points: first, that corruption should not be prioritized over the country’s security, and second, the shortage of IT professionals.

“It’s not just the public sector, not only state institutions, but I believe that just as private companies employ an accountant or lawyer, each of them will now need to hire a professional or an IT company to handle the challenges of the new era. And if they haven’t done this until now, it will become mandatory from today onward in order to face these challenges,” he said.

Concerning the plans for ensuring digital security in our country, he mentioned that they are working on four plans, including the drafting of the Cybersecurity Law and the Cybersecurity Strategy.

“The first is the creation of a Cybersecurity Strategy, which will guide us on how to strategically position ourselves in the approach to cybersecurity protection. It will identify what we need - whether it's IT professionals, IT equipment, space, or the integration of a common platform. The second part is the Cybersecurity Law, as we are the only country in the wider region without a cybersecurity law. The third part concerns the minimum standards that institutions need to have in place to ensure their systems are sufficiently protected. The fourth is a plan, which we will develop with our USAID partners, for incident response and monitoring to determine whether an incident is minor, serious, or critical. The institutions' actions will depend on this,” Andonovski said.

He added that there is always a shortage of personnel when it comes to cybersecurity.

“The Cybersecurity Law should aim to motivate the workforce in the public sector to stay, advance, and contribute to the creation of an open digital system,” he noted.

Photo: MIA