Ukraine deepens its cooperation with cybersecurity agencies of the EU, NATO and Romania

On April 11, 2024, a delegation of representatives of the main cybersecurity actors of Ukraine, headed by Nataliia Tkachuk, Secretary of the National Coordination Centre for Cybersecurity, Head of the Information Security and Cybersecurity Service of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, with the assistance of the National Directorate for Cybersecurity of Romania, visited a number of think tanks, educational institutions, EU and NATO missions, Romanian government agencies and international companies in the field of cybersecurity and countering cybercrime.

Among the participants were representatives of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the National Bank of Ukraine.

The participants had the opportunity to get acquainted with the activities of the European Cyber Security Competence Centre (ECCC), the Euro-Atlantic Resilience Centre (EARC), the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime Project Office (C-PROC), the Romanian National Directorate for Cybersecurity (DNSC), and the Polytechnic University of Bucharest.

During the meeting with Luca Tagliaretti, Head of the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC), the parties discussed promising areas of cooperation and handed over a letter signed by the Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Lytvynenko on the NCCC's intentions to partner and cooperate with the ECCC. They also discussed Ukraine's participation in the ECCC's Digital Europe and Horizon Europe programmes.

"For our country, establishing practical cooperation with the European Cyber Security Competence Centre will be an extremely important step towards European integration and strengthening the national cybersecurity system," said Natalia Tkachuk, Secretary of the NCCC.

In the course of the visit, meetings were held with representatives of the Euro-Atlantic Resilience Centre and the Project Office of the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime to discuss joint projects and plans for 2024, as well as additional opportunities for cooperation. In addition, the Ukrainian delegation met with Romanian government and law enforcement agencies in the field of cybersecurity and countering cyber threats at the National Directorate for Cybersecurity (DNSC) to deepen cooperation and respond quickly to common cyber threats.

Also, during the meeting with the representatives of the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, the parties agreed on the participation of students of the Romanian university in exercises and hackathons held in Ukraine at the initiative of the NCCC and the possibility of Ukrainian students from the respective universities to participate in similar international competitions held by the Romanian Polytechnic.

At the meetings, Natalia Tkachuk expressed gratitude to the partners for their support of Ukraine, noting that effective international cooperation is an important condition for strengthening our state's capabilities to counter cyber threats from russia, as well as a key to developing collective cyber resilience.