A web platform to support Italian Small and Medium Enterprises victims of Cyber attacks, usable even by those without strong technical skills. An indispensable tool to improve the cybersecurity posture of SMEs, capable of providing immediate assistance in the event of a crisis.
From the collaboration between Google.org, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma and Polytechnic of Milan the PACY platform is born (Pro-Active Cybersecurity), presented in Rome at the Departmental Faculty of Engineering of theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma during the event "Cybersecurity 5.0" In presence of Martina Colasante; Government Affairs & Public Policy Manager of Google Italy, of prof. Roberto Setola, President of Master's degree course in Intelligent Systems Engineering UCBM; , Matthew Lucchetti director of the Cyber 4.0 Competence Center; Francesco Carioti, director of the institutional relations and external relations division of the National Cybersecurity Agency ACN; Mario Breccia, Deputy Director of Information for Cybersecurity at NATO; Lorenzo Benigni, vice-president of Unindustria with responsibility for safety; Ivan Gabrielli, director of the Postal Police and Cyber Security Service; Luca Faramondi, coordinator of the master's degree in Cybersecurity Management UCBM; from Filippo Silvestri, Chief Business Development Officer Cyber 4.0.
The platform aims to give support for one of the weak points of the Italian production system: in fact, almost all of the companies in the beautiful country are small or medium-sized but the 43 percent of them do not have an IT security manager (according to the Grentz 2023 report).
The growing number of attacks, calculated by Clusit (Italian Association for Information Security) in 1637 in the first half of 2024 alone with an increase of 23 percent compared to the previous year, One increased use of malware (34 percent of attacks) and a significant increase in DDoS attacks (which reach 27 percent in Italy) make it more urgent to provide concrete answers in order not to impoverish the Italian productive and employment fabric.
The platform will guarantee immediate assistance: a virtual expert created with tools Artificial Intelligence (AI) and trained on the basis of advice collected from industry experts, will be available to businesses by providing advice and making existing resources and procedures online more accessible for an initial phase of assistance to businesses hit by a cyber attack.
Thanks to an intuitive interface that uses natural language the Small business, immediately after the IT incident, will be guided through an assistance path capable of determining the type of incident, guiding the user in the preliminary operations necessary to limit the impact of the attack, and finally to facilitate the compilation of reports on the event. Thanks to the platform documents and files will be uploadable directly from the chat to ensure a faster and more precise analysis of the attack. It will be possible to automatically generate reports to be presented to authorities such as the Postal Police, the Privacy Authority, etc.
Alongside the PACY platform, the joint laboratory was inaugurated during the event UCBM – Cyber 4.0 CyberSHOT (Cybersecurity laboratory for Systems, Health and Operational Technologies), the result of the collaboration between UCBM and the Cyber 4.0 Competence Center. The laboratory has a particular focus on Operational Technologies, e-health systems and critical infrastructures. The aim of the laboratory is to make cybersecurity research available to companies, by creating research projects and roadmaps.
UCBM also presented, with the support of Google.org, the new Cybersecurity Seminars Program, an initiative selected by Virtual Routes as one of the best in Europe in the field of advanced training. This prestigious recognition confirms the excellence of UCBM in cutting-edge training and its commitment to growing young talent in the cybersecurity sector.
The program, aimed at students from technical institutes or universities, aims to provide essential practical and theoretical skills to face the challenges of cyber security. Thanks to the funding of 330.000 euros from Google.org, fully covered scholarships are available, making this training opportunity accessible to young talents interested in pursuing a career in the cybersecurity sector.
The program includes three editions and will involve a total of 75 students and 100 SMEs. Students will follow a course that offers a combination of theory and practice, with the aim of supporting the SMEs involved in the project during a period of shadowing.
"Applied research on the cybersecurity of OT technologies plays a crucial role, especially in the Italian healthcare sector, where the integration between IT and OT is increasingly relevant. - has ofchiarato Matthew Lucchetti Director of the Cyber 4.0 Competence Center - The initiative that today inaugurates the CyberSHOT laboratory, the result of joint investments between the Campus Biomedico University and our Cyber 4.0 Competence Center, aims to identify tools and systems for better protection of critical infrastructures, such as hospitals and connected medical devices, guaranteeing the continuity of services, the protection of sensitive data and patient safety.
"Thanks to the funds made available by the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy, we want this laboratory to actively contribute to the development of innovative solutions to counter emerging threats, strengthen the resilience of the healthcare system and promote a culture of safety that is essential to face the challenges of the future." Affirms the prof. Roberto Setola, President of the Master's Degree Course in Intelligent Systems Engineering UCBM.
"Today is an important day for the Intelligent Systems Engineering course at theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma. We are growing in studies and projects related to Cybersecurity so much so that we can announce today the opening of a new laboratory in collaboration with the Ministry for Business and Made in Italy and the Cyber 4.0 competence center, and to be able to share an important path with Google on the topics of training and support for SMEs in the field of cybersecurity. "
Dichiaration of Lorenzo Benigni, Vice President of Unindustria with responsibility for cybersecurity: "We must work to build an advanced culture of security: cybersecurity must become an integral part of corporate culture, as it is a competitiveness asset. For this reason, we must support businesses, especially SMEs, by providing the necessary skills and tools. NIS 2 requires us to raise the bar of our companies' cybersecurity, but the cybersecurity supply chain in Lazio, as we have also seen today, represents excellence, and this will certainly help us win the challenge."
