An attacker who wants to carry out a cyber attack does not need a plane ticket or a passport, he can do it from wherever he wants and that is why there is a need at the European level for a correlation in the European Union in this regard, but also at the national level, between the institutions, Istvan -Lorant Antal, the president of the Energy Committee in the Senate, said on Wednesday at the Energy Cyber Security Forum.
“On June 13, Regulation 1366 came into force, and through this regulation at the European level, by definition, ANRE (National Energy Regulatory Authority n.r.) was designated as the competent authority regarding cyber risks, cyber attacks. Next date the deadline is December 13, until, mandatory, at the level of each state and at the level of Romania, the competent authority regarding cyber attacks must be designated. (…) What we all know about the electricity distribution networks, about the networks of natural gas, about internet networks, is that there are no more physical borders. That is, an attacker who wants to carry out a cyber attack does not need a plane ticket, he does not even need an identity card do from wherever he wants and from this point of view there is a need for a legislative correlation at the European level regarding these attacks, but a very clear correlation between the institutions is also needed at the national level in order to have the most adequate security from this point of view,” said Antal, according to Agerpres.
He mentioned that an “extremely important” meeting was held in the Energy, Energy Infrastructure and Mineral Resources Committee of the Senate with ANRE and the National Cyber Security Directorate and that these institutions need specialists and must sustained.
“The state needs a weight loss cure in terms of public expenditures. But when we are going to do this weight loss cure regarding public expenditures, let’s not be hypocrites and be very careful, because, for example, today and at the level DNSC, but also at the ANRE level (…) they don’t have enough people and specialists. Who will take care of our cyber security? (…) So we have a major responsibility here and we have to support these institutions, because, indeed, as I have already told you, this regulation is in force since June 13, and by December 13 we must finalize and define very clearly the competent authority that will be responsible for cyber incidents,” the senator said.
On the other hand, he emphasized that Romania has the potential to be an important producer of natural gas, it has the potential to have massive investments in electricity production capacities in the Cernavodă strip and we must insist on this potential, because “electrification is the future”.
“And there is another area that I insist on referring to. The railways in Romania, which are electrified somewhere in the proportion of 30%, and we, if we want reindustrialization, then we need branches of industries that use natural gas and energy electricity for a simple reason: not to export the natural gas from the Black Sea, but to create added value in Romania. And if we create added value in Romania, in the Romanian industry, where Romanian gas and electricity produced in Romania means that we will have to transport that product produced in Romania and the most efficient and greenest is by rail. If we don’t have electrified railways, we have a problem, and the electrification of railways is closely related to the need cyber security,” explained Lorant Antal.
At the same time, he expressed his hope that, “after we pass the super electoral year and finish the elections”, a strategy for the next ten years can be drawn up.
“But one more thing, where are we today? We still don’t have an energy strategy. (…) We don’t have an energy strategy for now and we haven’t since 2020. And we, if we want to talk about energy security, if we want to talk about investments in distribution, if we want to talk about electricity and natural gas producers, how do we have that claim that each individual actor, in such a vital, important, strategic field, finds the way so, on his own? We, at the state level, should come and still give direction and support,” Antal also said.
