The National Security Authority of Hungary, operating as a support institution of the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice, held the second Information Security and Cyber Defence (ISCD) conference on 3-4 September as a preliminary event of the October Budapest Cyberspace Conference taking place in October.

Thought-provoking lectures were delivered at the conference by Gábor Iklódy, NATO’s Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges and Mihály Zala, President of the National Security Authority of Hungary. On behalf of the Government, amongst others, the conference was attended by Dr Réka Szemerkényi, senior political advisor at the Prime Minister’s Office and Dr Zoltán Kovács, Minister of State for Social Relations at the Ministry of Public Administration and Justice, who said that the Government recognised the necessity of assessing the defence capabilities of the existing information systems, coordinating the relevant local and EU criteria and protecting the national data asset and the critical national infrastructure. Thanks to the Government’s timely recognition, the statutory environment and the range of assets coming under increased national protection have been reshaped completely in recent years, and a progressive new National Security Strategy was also approved at the beginning of 2012.

The event serves as a national and international forum for the theoretical and practical development of information security and cyber defence both on a strategic level and as a leading expert forum.  The purpose of the two-day conference held in Balatonőszöd is to promote excellence-based cooperation between the State, international integration organisations, industry and critical infrastructure players and scientists by creating a forum for high-level professional and comparative debates. The conference served as a scene for the introduction of the latest cyber defence trends which also have an impact on international agreements, well-known and less well-known latest methods for the detection of vulnerabilities, the relevance of information security awareness, the protection of industry control systems (SCADA), in particular, in respect of critical infrastructure, and the security solutions of leading market players and application developers.

The lecturers and attendees at the conference included important local decision-makers, the representatives of organisations responsible for security policy issues, leading experts from today’s most relevant information security providers, the security managers of local and foreign critical infrastructure facilities, the senior experts of major information security providers and the representatives of university research institutes.

The Budapest Cyberspace Conference will be held on 4-5 October 2012. Due to the high level of attendees and the political importance of the event, the conference is one of this year’s priority diplomatic and professional events; 600 international government, corporate, scientific and civil attendees and some 100 members of the press are awaited at Budapest’s Millennium Park. Participants of the Budapest Cyberspace Conference will have the opportunity to exchange views  on the economic and social opportunities offered by cyberspace, the latest local and international developments in cyber-security and the threats and challenges posed by cyber-crime as part of three plenary sessions, five thematic panel discussions, eight workshop debates, a separate youth forum and an innovation exhibition.

(Ministry of Public Administration and Justice)