UNITED States assistant secretary of state Lincoln Bloomfield has told a conference in Sofia on regional cyber-security that Bulgaria should become a centre of fighting cyber-crime in South-Eastern Europe.
Bloomfield, who is assistant secretary of state for political and military affairs, made the call at the close of the two-day conference, which was opened by President Georgi Purvanov.
Purvanov told participants that Bulgaria had come a long way from the days, more than a dozen years ago, it was known as the place of the "Dark Avenger", the notorious author of computer viruses.
"The Internet has not only brought people closer, eliminating distances and differences but has also provided criminals with a powerful instrument for organising their activities," Purvanov said.
"The very holding of this conference in Bulgaria is evidence of the depth of the changes that have taken place over the past few years."
He said he was certain that the notoriety associated with the Dark Avenger was a thing of the past, and he drew the attention of participants to the gold medals won recently by Bulgarian students who had participated in international informatics competitions.
Purvanov said the number of regular Internet users in Bulgaria was growing constantly and was now 16 per cent of the entire population.
The conference, held on September 8 and 9, was sponsored by the US government through the State Department, in collaboration with the Bulgarian Government, the Bulgarian President's Council for Information Technologies and Internews Network.
Government and police officers, as well as magistrates, took part in the conference and were briefed by IT specialists on various aspects of cyber-security, and what was required to protect critical information at national and regional level.
On the first day of the conference, US government experts discussed the challenges in securing state networks.
Michele Markoff, State Department Senior Coordinator for International Critical Infrastructure Protection, delivered a report on the issue.
Howard Schmidt, vice president and chief information security officer for E-bay Inc and former chairman of the White House critical infrastructure protection board, also took part in the discussion.
Government and private sector experts presented later the same day trends in threats to computer and information systems and gave their views of how these threats had become more complex and persistent.
The introductory speech on this issue was given by Erica Russell, State Department deputy coordinator for international critical infrastructure protection.
Criminal threats to information systems were discussed by James Farnan, deputy assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Bulgarian MP Michael Mikov presented Bulgaria's cyber-crime legislation.
Last year, Parliament approved an additional chapter to the Penal Code on fighting computer crimes and is expected to soon ratify the European Convention on Cyber Crimes.
On the second day, experts involved with cyber incident monitoring discussed the need to have computer emergency response teams, and the benefits of exchanging watch and warning information, as well as training of incident management personnel.
Bloomfield, who is assistant secretary of state for political and military affairs, made the call at the close of the two-day conference, which was opened by President Georgi Purvanov.
Purvanov told participants that Bulgaria had come a long way from the days, more than a dozen years ago, it was known as the place of the "Dark Avenger", the notorious author of computer viruses.
"The Internet has not only brought people closer, eliminating distances and differences but has also provided criminals with a powerful instrument for organising their activities," Purvanov said.
"The very holding of this conference in Bulgaria is evidence of the depth of the changes that have taken place over the past few years."
He said he was certain that the notoriety associated with the Dark Avenger was a thing of the past, and he drew the attention of participants to the gold medals won recently by Bulgarian students who had participated in international informatics competitions.
Purvanov said the number of regular Internet users in Bulgaria was growing constantly and was now 16 per cent of the entire population.
The conference, held on September 8 and 9, was sponsored by the US government through the State Department, in collaboration with the Bulgarian Government, the Bulgarian President's Council for Information Technologies and Internews Network.
Government and police officers, as well as magistrates, took part in the conference and were briefed by IT specialists on various aspects of cyber-security, and what was required to protect critical information at national and regional level.
On the first day of the conference, US government experts discussed the challenges in securing state networks.
Michele Markoff, State Department Senior Coordinator for International Critical Infrastructure Protection, delivered a report on the issue.
Howard Schmidt, vice president and chief information security officer for E-bay Inc and former chairman of the White House critical infrastructure protection board, also took part in the discussion.
Government and private sector experts presented later the same day trends in threats to computer and information systems and gave their views of how these threats had become more complex and persistent.
The introductory speech on this issue was given by Erica Russell, State Department deputy coordinator for international critical infrastructure protection.
Criminal threats to information systems were discussed by James Farnan, deputy assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Bulgarian MP Michael Mikov presented Bulgaria's cyber-crime legislation.
Last year, Parliament approved an additional chapter to the Penal Code on fighting computer crimes and is expected to soon ratify the European Convention on Cyber Crimes.
On the second day, experts involved with cyber incident monitoring discussed the need to have computer emergency response teams, and the benefits of exchanging watch and warning information, as well as training of incident management personnel.
