The government delegate in Galicia, José Miñones, has today appealed to the combined action of training and awareness in cybersecurity with the action of the Security Bodies and Forces as key to consolidating in Galicia the decrease of cybercrimes that, for the first time since there are records, was registered in the community in 2022.
José Miñones has pronounced this way in the opening of the “Training Day on Cybersecurity” organized jointly by the Government Delegation in Galicia and the College of Computer Engineering of Galicia (CPEIG).
This activity is carried out at the headquarters of the Abanca Social Work, in Santiago, and is aimed at the National Police and Civil Guard personnel assigned to the Community. José Miñones has announced that this first day will be followed by two more, aimed at local administrations and Galician companies.
Prevent and protect in the virtual world
The delegate stressed that, in the year 2022, the statistics of the Ministry of Interior recorded a decrease of cyber scams of almost 5% in Galicia, “a very significant change of trend, after a decade in which this type of criminal offenses had multiplied by 10”. José Miñones recalled that, if in 2011 little more than 2,000 cybercrimes had been known in Galicia, “just 3 out of 100”, in 2021 they represented more than 22,000 criminal offenses, “4 out of 10”.
The delegate has meant that behind this change of trend are the greater training that citizens and companies have in cybersecurity and the impact of police strategies implemented in recent years. And he reiterated the Government’s commitment to continue working on this double path of action, which translates into two tasks “prevent”, with the sensitization of users of new technologies, and “protect”, with the application of specific police strategies and with the appropriate means.
In the field of prevention, he has recalled the different ways that the Government develops to train: in the school environment, through the School Coexistence Plan; towards the elderly community, through the Greater Security Plan; towards companies and the citizens as a whole. Precisely, the delegate recalled that the Ministry of the Interior is developing in these weeks a nationwide awareness campaign on cybersecurity with the slogan “help us to protect you”. In this regard, the representatives of the security forces present at today’s inauguration indicated that cybercrime could be reduced by 70% through greater awareness of society.
Regarding police strategies, José Miñones recalled that “the Government of Pedro Sánchez launched a national cybersecurity strategy” that has been translated into operational plans involving different agencies of the State and, especially, the Security Forces. At the operational level, the Ministry of the Interior has a Cybersecurity Coordination Office and “has multiplied by two the means used in the National Police and Civil Guard personnel assigned to this specific type of crime”.
Trust in telematic media
For his part, the president of the Professional College of Computer Engineering of Galicia, Fernando Suárez, has highlighted the importance of cybersecurity and that “it does not take a minute to lose, nor spare resources and with the essential collaboration and exchange of information in real time”.
Fernando Suárez has highlighted the responsibility of professionals in the sector to promote this culture of prevention in society. To this responsibility has added the need of the sector to provide society with the tools to guarantee that security. “Galicia has great professionals and technological companies and, in particular, in the world of security, so we must situate ourselves as in this sector and transmit to the citizens confidence in the use of technological means that are part of our daily life.”
In addition to the delegate and the president of the CPEIG, the mayor of Santiago, Xosé Sánchez Bugallo, participated in the opening ceremony; the president of the FEGAMP, Alberto Varela; the chief general of the Civil Guard in Galicia, Miguel Ángel Arias; the superior chief of the Police of Galicia, Ramón Gómez; and the deputy delegate of the Government in A Coruña, María Rivas.