Our firm was strongly present at the Cyberfort International Conference which took place on the 4thof March in Bucharest, Romania.
As part of our participation in the consortium of the European Project CYBERFORT Strengthening Cyber Defenses of SMEs for Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) Compliance", Legal Counsel, Mr. Vassilis Psyrras, Chief Information Office, Michael Ioannou and Associate Lawyer, Mr. Emilios Charalambous, attended the General Assembly and Conference of the project.
Vassilis Psyrras moderated a high-level discussion revolved around the key implementation perspectives of the new Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), prompting all speakers and gaining valuable input from:
- Perit KIRKMANN-RAAVE, Seconded National Expert (MTPS unit) at the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, ENISA
- Claudia LASCATEU, Legal Expert at the Romanian National Cyber Security Directorate (DNSC)
- Radu VASILE, CEO at Eximprod Engineering
- Mihai CHIHAIA, Chief Information Office at DVLOPER
- Michael IOANNOU, CEO at BOLTON TECHNOLOGIES LTD
Michael Ioannou was an active participant in various component's of the day's programme – providing his experience on the most effective ways that SMEs can apply the regulation at the above panel, while presenting potential synergies between the project and additional European projects taking place, such as the SECUR-EU project.
Lastly, Emilios Charalambous provided a legal perspective on behalf of Elias Neocleous & Co LLC at a panel focused on how to best build a support ecosystem for SMEs around the CRA, alongside:
- Rita JONUSAITE, Government Affairs & Public Policy Manager at Google
- Octavian POPA, Manager at Deloitte
- Gabriel RAICU, Rector at Constanta Maritime University
- Marius ROȘU, Chief Information Security Officer at PPC Romania
Overall, beyond the thought provoking and engaging discussions, the conference formally introduced the digital tool developed by the consortium, which is aiming to simplify the process of CRA compliance for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), making it more accessible and manageable; enhancing the efficiency of compliance documentation processes through automation, thereby reducing the administrative burden on SMEs.
The project is funded by the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC), under the Digital Europe Programme, with the Topic: DIGITAL-ECCC-2024-DEPLOY-CYBER-06-COMPLIANCECRA, and it started its implementation on 1st December 2024, gathering 8 Consortium Partners Organizations from Cyprus and Romania. The European Consortium Partners is coordinated by I-ENERGYLINK (RO) working together with BOLTON TECHNOLOGIES (CY), CLONE SYSTEMS (CY), COLUMBIA SHIPMANAGEMENT (CY), DEALIO LIMITED (CY), ROMANIAN NATIONAL CYBERSECURITY DIRECTORATE (RO), ELIAS NEOCLEOUS (CY) and EXIMPROD ENGINEERING (RO).