With cyber-attacks causing billions of dollars of economic damage around the world every year, cybersecurity has become a key issue for public organisations, companies and even individuals. A professional and academic conference on the current issues was organised by Széchenyi István University, where the first educational programme of legal experts in the field was launched in Hungary.

On 13 November, Széchenyi István University and the Information Security Section of the Scientific Association for Infocommunications organised a professional and scientific conference entitled "Cybersecurity Challenges of the Present and Future". The event was also the 52nd Information Security Professional Forum of the Smart Club of Electronic Information Security Managers (EIVOK). At the opening ceremony, Dr Sándor Magyar, President of EIVOK, welcomed the experts present in the auditorium of the Deák Ferenc Faculty of Law and Political Sciences and the more than 100 other participants who joined the presentations online. 

Cybersecurity is now not only a technological issue, but also a legal and administrative one, one of the most topical examples of which is the new European Union Directive on network security. It imposes not only technical compliance but also legal and administrative obligations on the organisations concerned. Széchenyi István University has taken a prominent role in training professionals to respond to these challenges.

Dr Roland Kelemen, Head of the Department of Modern Technologies and Cybersecurity Law at Széchenyi István University, Dr Péter Smuk, Dean of the Deák Ferenc Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, Dr Eszter Lukács, Vice-President for International Affairs and Strategic Relations of SZE, Dr András Lapsánszky, Head of the Department of Public Administrative Law and Fiscal Law of SZE, Vice-President for Communications of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority and Dr Sándor Magyar, President of EIVOK at the conference in Győr (Photo: András Adorján)

Dr Eszter Lukács, Vice-President for International Affairs and Strategic Relations at the institution, emphasized in her opening speech that Széchenyi University is the first university in Hungary to offer a Master's Degree and Postgraduate Programme in Cybersecurity Law, led by the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences and Dr Roland Kelemen, Associate Professor - the initiator and main organizer of the conference. "We offer our students a valuable degree, knowledge that is in demand on the labour market, as the work of professionals graduating from this programme is becoming increasingly indispensable in the fields of public administration, national security, multinational, medium and small enterprises. Our Master's programme offers relevant and useful knowledge not only domestically but also globally, which is why we are also offering the programme in English, supporting the internationalisation efforts of our University," said the Vice-President. 

She added that the complexity of the subject requires the synergy of several disciplines, which is why the Master's Programme involves, in addition to the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, faculty members from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Informatics and Electrical Engineering, the Kautz Gyula Faculty of Business and Economics and the Apáczai Csere János Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences. She mentioned that the University's Digital Development Centre contributes its technological expertise to research on the topic. "Our University is also responsible for raising cybersecurity awareness at the societal level, as the victims of cyber-attacks are not only companies, but in many cases ordinary people," said Dr Lukács. 

Dr Péter Smuk, Dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, spoke about the interdisciplinary accumulation of knowledge, which is a great advantage of Széchenyi University. "An important pillar of this is to support our active researchers, to connect professionals from different disciplines, faculties and centres of excellence, and to conduct research activities that are of international value. An important objective is to contribute to the creation of innovations, tools, applications and sustainable solutions that benefit the development of society, but also to take into account risk factors in their development. The role of the law in protecting cybersecurity is indisputable," he said. The Dean said that the faculty has taken a leading role in this area through the training courses mentioned above, the newly created Department of Modern Technologies and Cybersecurity Law and the operation of a research group on security.

To further strengthen the interdisciplinarity of the conference, the University's Department of Informatics also took an active part in the organisation of the conference, with Dr Katalin Kovács as the Head of Department and Richárd Németh as the graduate teaching assistant leading the discussion with the students.

Dr András Lapsánszky, Head of the Department of Public Administrative Law and Fiscal Law, Vice-President for Communications of the National Media and Infocommunications Authority, noted that the topic is also of particular importance because the development of communications networks and broadband data services will become meaningless if countries are unable to meet these challenges. On this basis, there is a clear ambition to bring cybersecurity regulation and operations to the same level as communications. "Cybersecurity issues and challenges cause economically measurable damage and benefits in terms of GDP, which is not insignificant for global competitiveness," he said. András Lapsánszky also referred to the harmonisation and development of national and international regulation, which is also a priority for the professionals concerned and which the ideas presented at the conference can help to address.