"The Office of the Government of the Czech Republic is interested in further strengthening its capacity in the field of cyber security. We need a strong and independent partner with the necessary expertise in the field of information security management system," said Jana Kotalíková, Head of the Government Office, commenting on the memorandum. She noted that Faculty of Electrical Engineering can provide specialist for various areas of cyber security and risk management, and also has experience in adult education. Thanks to this, experts from the faculty can also participate in the training of employees of the Office.
"We see cooperation with the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic as part of the university's social responsibility. We work on research and development of projects that have a public impact, it is our interest to transfer the results of our work into practice and strengthen cooperation with the government or public sector," said the second signatory of the memorandum, Prof. Petr Páta, Dean of Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Czech Technical University.
What should the future cooperation between the two institutions look like? According to Dr Jaroslav Burčík, who heads the FEL's Cyber Security Centre, the faculty will help with the knowledge development of the office's employees, provide expert advice and help with the selection of students in technical fields for the needs of the office. They will begin to develop a new form of collaboration during an upcoming pilot project to align mutual practices, responsibilities, and expectations over a selected area of information security at the Government Office. The project is expected to be implemented within a few months.
Dr. Burčík said that when building a cyber-resilient organization, unfortunately, the appropriate knowledge development of employees and managers is often overlooked. "I am very pleased that the Office of the Government has chosen our faculty as a partner in this area. In addition to experts who are dedicated to research, we offer our partners and the general public a faculty training programme - the Cyber Security Academy. Courses in our Academy, are taught by experienced practitioners and are designed to be studied remotely, including in labs," stated Dr. Burcik.
"Cybersecurity should be an natural part of our lives nowadays. A responsible approach to dealing with cybersecurity should be part of our professional and civilian lives and I am convinced that state institutions and the academic sector should lead by example," said Lukáš Kintr, Director of the National Cyber and Information Security Agency, who was also present at the signing. "And I therefore very much welcome the fact that such an amazing synergy has been found. And that the Office of the Government, a prestigious, state institution, has joined forces with an equally prestigious academic institution of CTU (FEL)," Mr. Kintr then added,
Ing. Jitka Křupková, director of the Department of Informatics of the Office of the Government and doc. Jiří Vodrážka, head of the Department of Telecommunication Technology at CTU FEL were also present at the signing of the memorandum at the Straka Academy today.
Photographs taken by: Petr Neugebauer