New initiative aimed at boosting local businesses’ cybersecurity announced

A new initiative with the aim of boosting local businesses’ cybersecurity and online resilience has been announced, providing businesses with greater knowledge about the area.

The scheme was announced by Minister for the Economy, Enterprise and Strategic Projects Silvio Schembri, on Monday, as part of a collaboration between the Ministry, and the Cybersecurity National Coordination Centre (NCC), which forms part of the Malta Information Technology Agency (MITA).

During the announcement, Minister Schembri said that today, digital technology is a necessary tool for every business. “In the same way that at home or at a shop we use an alarm system, we have to see that have secure digital infrastructure that protects our businesses from cyberattacks,” he said.

He explained that this initiative is only “part of a chain” of other schemes offered with this objective, with him also referring to the Mind the Gap and Cyberalt initiatives, cofinanced from national funds and the Digital Europe Programme.

Cyber Assess has a total budget of €150,000 disposable funds from the Recovery and Resilience Fund, forming part of NextGenerationEU. The aim for this scheme is to assist Maltese businesses so that they benefit from various services with the objective of improving their cybersecurity.

“Measures like this one continue to help us advance and progress in the digital revolution that we are living in. I want to remind everyone that our country has made massive steps in this area, particularly when it comes to connectivity and online public services, so much that we have already reached one of the targets for the Digital Decade policy of the EU in those two aspects,” Minister Schembri added.

Emmanuel Darmanin, CEO at MITA, explained that as highlighted through the name Cyber Assess, this initiative will offer opportunities to at least 30 local businesses so that they could be able to examine their systems and digital infrastructure when it comes to cybersecurity.

Those businesses interested in participating in this scheme can click here for further information.