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Cybersecurity,
everyone’s responsibility
Interview with
Miguel Rego,
managing director of
the National Institute
of Cybersecurity
The National Institute of Cybersecurity (IN-
CIBE, Spanish acronym) is the competent
entity for the development of cybersecurity
and for citizen’s trust in digital issues, the
academic network and for Spanish research
(Re-dIRIS), and companies, strategic sec-
tors in particular.
The activities conducted by INCIBE are sup-
ported by three fundamental pillars: provi-
ding services, research, and coordination.
Services.
Promotes services in the field of
cybersecurity that make it possible to take
advantage of Information and Communica-
tion Technologies (ICTs) and increase trust
in digital technologies. Specifically, INCIBE
is involved in the protection of users’ pri-
vacy, encourages the implementation of
mechanisms for preventing and addressing
information security incidents, minimising its
impact when these incidents occur, and pro-
motes the advancement of the information
security culture by building awareness and
through training.
The general objective
of the institute
is to strengthen
cybersecurity and
trust in the services
of the Information
Society
Research. It has significant capabilities for
tackling different types of complex projects
with a strong innovation component. The
dynamics of its operations is also focused
on research, hereby enabling INCIBE to have
the ability to generate intelligence in cyberse-
curity as the driver behind its application in
new technologies and mechanisms that also
contribute to improving services.
Coordination:
Participates in collaboration
networks that make it possible to respond in
the field of cybersecurity immediately, globa-
lly and effectively, always with a perspective
based on experience and the exchange of
information. This is why for the activity con-
ducted by INCIBE, coordination and colla-
boration with other entities, private or public,
national and international, is essential.
Miguel Rego, the managing director of INCI-
BE, an expert in this field and highly respec-
ted by professionals in the private and public
sectors, explains the mission of the institute,
to whom it reports, and how it is organized,
and also stresses the importance of cyber-
security for companies.
What is the mission of the National Ins-
titute of Cybersecurity?
The general objective of INCIBE is to reinfor-
ce cybersecurity and trust in the services of
the Information Society. It contributes value
to citizens, companies, the Administration,
the Spanish academic and research net-
work, the information and communication
technologies sector and strategic sectors
in general. This translates into more specific
goals. On one hand, consolidating INCIBE
as a relevant player in the national and inter-
national cybersecurity field and as the pro-
moter of the ICT sector and of cybersecurity.
On the other hand, it aims to monitor the
constant evolution of incident-response
services (through our Security CERT and
Industry-CERT_SI) and deploy new capabi-
lities based on INCIBE’s potent technologi-
cal platform. These objectives can be sum-
marised as a general objective to improve
society’s digital trust by building awareness,
training and the generation of talent, and on
the technical capabilities of an entity such as
INCIBE with a deep public service vocation.
To whom does INCIBE report and how
is it organized?
INCIBE is a company reporting to the Mi-
nistry of Industry, Energy and Tourism (MI-
NETUR), managed through the Secretariat
of Telecommunications and the Information
Society (SETSI, Spanish acronym). As an ex-
cellence entre, INCIBE is the Government’s
instrument for developing cybersecurity as
the driver of social transformation and the
opportunity for innovation. To this end, with
an activity based on research, the provision
of services and the coordination with agents
with competencies in this field, INCIBE is the
leader in different cybersecurity-related ac-
tions nationally and internationally.
As concerns its administration, INCIBE has
about 90 employees. Nevertheless, it cou-
nts with practically all the companies in the
Spanish cybersecurity sector. I would like to
highlight as an important part of our corpora-
te culture the fact that INCIBE is a company
always willing to collaborate and cooperate,
as shown, to cite some examples, its close
relations with the Ministry of the Interior, with
the Organization of American States, and
with private companies such as Microsoft.
Do you think that companies are prepa-
red to tackle cyberthreats?
Considering that not all companies have the
same possibilities, either because of their