Although known in the West rather because of the economic difficulties rather than for its high-tech virtues, Romania has become one of the top European countries in combating cybercrime and cyber war related operations, an analysis of the Associated Press said reported by Agerpres.
Advanced competences of Romanian computer scientists - who are partly the result of inheritance from the days of the Ceausescu’s regime, then the training in cybernetics was encouraged - have made them reach some of the best computer 'detectives' in Europe. As a result, NATO has turned to Romania to defend Ukraine from Russia's cyber espionage and Romanian experts are currently working with Ukrainian IT specialists and help the Ukrainian government institutions.
Ukrainian authorities say that in addition to the classic war pro-Russian breakaway provinces are conducting in Eastern Ukraine, the Russian government leads in parallel a cyber-war against their country. According to Ukrainian reps, Romania helped block infection operations of government computer networks in Kiev and cyber espionage actions.
At the last year NATO summit in Wales, it was decided to create five funds for each of the capacity building programs of the Ukrainian defensive army and Romania has offered to conduct the cyber defense program and appointed the company Rasirom to handle it .
Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta stated at the meeting with the foreign press that Romania is trying to become a regional leader in this field, which prompted NATO to assign them on Ukraine's cyber security program.
Ukraine is not the only one to benefit from the abilities of Romanian computers scientists, but also Europol and the European Union Police Office. According to the institution’s manager, Ron Wainright, 20% of the cyber security experts are Romanian police officers and the expertise that the Romanian specialists bring along in the fight against this extraordinary threat.
The fact that Romania is today a leader of the cyber 'police' might be due to the many Romanian hackers becoming internationally known after making attacks on US computer networks, the analysis mentioned. The source recalls the case of the hacker 'Guccifer' who accessed the electronic messages of former American Secretary of State Colin Powell and former US president George W. Bush, then publishing the intimate family photos of the latter.