Sofia now plays host to a two-day conference on Cybersecurity in Southeast Europe. It involves experts from the Balkan countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Macedonia, and Turkey, representatives of Central Europe, as well as Europol /the European Police Office/. Among the organizers of the forum is RIPE Network Coordination Centre, which takes care of the limited resources to use the internet: IP addresses, the autonomous systems, etc. “The aim is to acquaint Bulgarian society related to the development of the Internet with the new technology for the introduction of version IP-6”, said in an interview for Radio Bulgaria Svetolslav Naydenov from the Bulgarian Internet Exchange BIX.BG, keynote speaker on the topic of e-Infrastructure.

"You know that IP version 4 - Internet addresses are getting depleted. And we have to move to IP - version 6. And in purely technical terms, this is associated with many problems. Here we discuss these very issues and challenges that lie ahead. The topic is not directly related to personal data. Each device - phone, computer or whatever should have an IP address so that the Internet can function well. The way the Internet works now in the country - addresses "version 4" finished and a new technology should be introduced. It is associated with virtually rebuilding the network again. The purpose of this conference is to acquaint the Internet with new technologies to make it all easier and more comfortable to work with."

What do you recommend to Bulgaria?

"It is possible to quickly introduce the new technology in parallel with the old one so that end users wouldn’t feel that something has changed. Such is the world practice. No European or American standards exist - the standard is only one. Unlike everything that is regulated, it remains open, i.e. unregulated. This is related to data protection, too, but not as much with personal data as with the fact that each network must have some level of security. Here we will discuss how this security is achieved by introducing new technologies and standards. The forum is attended by several organizations that are engaged in creating the standards."

What are the problems in SEE as a whole?

"This part of the world and especially Southeast Europe is the most developed in terms of the Internet, for example regarding speed. The challenge here is that we still have, perhaps, the fastest internet. But still no one is in a hurry to introduce this new technology. I'm talking about IP - version 6. We are not in a rush because there are still ample opportunities in version 4, but it will be exhausted. We need to be one step ahead in our work on the new technology and introduce them tomorrow, and not when it is too late. Our organization BIX is the place where providers of fast internet get in touch. The event was attended by several organizations sharing fast Internet from Macedonia, Romania, Greece and others."

The regional conference on cyber security in Southeast Europe continues tomorrow on the topic of data protection with the new version of IP. Among the speakers is Aglika Klayn from the Europol European Cybercrime Centre.

English version Rossitsa Petcova