Ourense, April 12, 2023.- The subdelegate of the Government in Ourense, Emilio González, 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 Ourense the decrease of cybercrimes that, for the first time since records exist, was registered in the community in 2022.
Emilio González spoke in this way at the opening of the “Cybersecurity Day” organized by the Government Subdelegation and which was attended by representatives of the Civil Guard’s arroba team, the National Police’s cybercrime team and business representatives from the cybersecurity sector.
This activity is carried out in the Subdelegation of the Government of Ourense and is aimed at the citizens, especially the associations of fathers and mothers of the Ourense schools, as well as the federations of merchants and entrepreneurs of the city.
Prevent and protect in the virtual world
The subdelegate stressed that, in the year 2022, the statistics of the Ministry of Interior recorded a decrease of cyber scams of almost 5% in Ourense, “a very significant change of trend, after a decade in which this type of criminal offenses had multiplied by 10”. Emilio González recalled that, if in 2011 little more than 190 cybercrimes had been known in Ourense, in 2021 they represented more than 2,000 criminal offenses.
The subdelegate has meant that behind this change of trend there is a greater training of citizens and companies 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. In this regard, representatives of the security forces present at today’s inauguration indicated that cybercrime could be reduced by 70% through greater awareness of society.
With regard to police strategies, the Government of Pedro Sánchez launched a national cybersecurity strategy” which has been translated into operational plans involving different State agencies 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”.