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CyberSecurity Hub: a new centre for cooperation on cybersecurity

The new institute has been established by Masaryk University and two other leading Czech universities

Three leading Czech universities – Masaryk University, the Czech Technical University in Prague and the Brno University of Technology – have established a new institute to boost their cooperation on cybersecurity. Besides serving as a research centre, the CyberSecurity Hub will offer industry and company support and EU cybersecurity certification of the latest technologies.

“This unique collaboration of three universities engaged in top-level cybersecurity research at the national and international level will improve the status and competitiveness of Czech cybersecurity research and education and strengthen the ties with the application industry,” says Radim Polčák, the MU vice-rector for development, legal matters and information technologies.

The new institute will build on the work of its founders in the National Centre of Competence in Cybersecurity, which is a collaboration between the leading Czech research institutions and the private sector. Top of the agenda for the new institute is establishing a European digital innovation hub and creating a cybersecurity certification authority.

Radek Holý, the vice-rector for informatics at the Czech Technical University in Prague, says: “As a member of the European Digital Innovation Hub network, the CyberSecurity Hub will work together with our partners to create a comprehensive system for sharing knowledge, experience, know-how, technologies and infrastructure that will safely facilitate the progress of digitisation and innovation in Czech industry.

Another mission of this institute is to obtain the accreditation to become a certification authority, which is an entity that assesses and certifies compliance of cutting-edge technologies with security regulations. The activities of the certification authority will be managed by the founding universities and will be compliant with current European legislation, making the certificates issued by the CyberSecurity Hub valid within the whole European Economic Area. As the hub can draw on the experience of top experts from all three founding universities, it hopes to be able to compete with certification authorities from the larger EU member states.

“Close cooperation on cybersecurity with Czech industry will enhance the performance of their products and services and will, in effect, improve the competitiveness of Czech industry abroad,” adds Dean Pavel Zemčík from the Faculty of Information Technology at the Brno University of Technology.

The strategic management of the hub’s activities will be in the hands of a board of directors composed of representatives of each university and independent experts. The founders of the hub plan to build ties with other research institutions, the public administration, private companies, professional associations, industry clusters and other organisations in the Czech Republic and abroad.