ENISA Joins International Fair of Thessaloniki to Promote Cybersecurity Skills

ENISA participated for the first time to the International Fair of Thessaloniki to raise awareness on cybersecurity skills and competences to support the initiatives of the European Year of Youth 2022 designed to build a more inclusive and digital future.

The event was an opportunity for the Agency's Awareness Raising and Education team, to engage in the open dialogue on the topic of "Skills of Today for Tomorrow", in the presence of the Vice-President of the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas.

During his intervention in the open dialogue, the Vice-President underlined the issue of developing and updating skills, as one of the determining factors for Europe in the future – be it for the labour market, in educational system or as a sign of the quality of democracy.

ENISA addressed in particular teenagers and students when presenting some of the cybersecurity skills and qualifications needed to seek better professional development in the cybersecurity field.

Further topics addressed also included the current knowledge gap seen in the European Union’s cybersecurity job market and the challenges faced to achieve a more diverse workforce.

Bridging those gaps remains the objective of the wide portfolio of awareness campaigns and tools ENISA has been developing over the years. The event was therefore also an opportunity to present these activities which include the CyberHEAD platform, the European Cybersecurity Challenge (ECSC) and the European Cybersecurity Month (ECSM).

ENISA moderated a dedicated workshop on Cybersecurity for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) with representatives from different business associations in Greece and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Thessaloniki. ENISA furthermore presented the “Awareness Raising in the Box”, a soon to be launched service that ENISA will offer to any organisation, including SMEs, to develop and implement their corporate cyber awareness programme.

The Agency also engaged in a further panel discussion on "Women in Cyber" organised on Monday 12th September by the Greek Ministry of Digital Governance. Points raised inter alias were the current situation on diversity in cybersecurity with a focus on gender balance in technical activities and roles. The topics of the multi-disciplinary nature of cybersecurity, as well as what actions could be taken and what tools could be used to further encourage women to join the cybersecurity field under the #CyberAll campaign, were also addressed. The panel discussion is available here: ΔΕΘ 2022 | "Women In Cyber".

Last but not least, the exhibition combined hands-on activities for kids via open-ended play-based learning opportunities to explore and gain knowledge on cybersecurity.

Further Information: 

Press Release:  ΔΕΘ - Δεξιότητες του Σήμερα για το Αύριο (europa.eu).

ENISA Cybersecurity Guide for SMEs

European Year of Youth

European Cybersecurity Challenge 2022

European Cybersecurity Month

CYBERHEAD – Cybersecurity Higher Education Database

About ENISA

The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) is the Union's agency dedicated to achieving a high common level of cybersecurity across Europe. ENISA contributes to EU cyber policy, enhances the trustworthiness of ICT products, services and processes with cybersecurity certification schemes, cooperates with Member States and EU bodies, and helps Europe prepare for the cyber challenges of tomorrow.

ENISA draws on a structured approach in raising cybersecurity awareness and education. ENISA aims at building on its expertise and enhancing this activity so that its stakeholders and the overall European community obtain an elevated level of cybersecurity hygiene and awareness, and eventually change behaviour towards prominent cybersecurity attacks. Its added value lays in promoting and disseminating the existing expert knowledge that can pave the way towards a trusted and cyber secure Europe.

Contact

For press questions and interviews, please contact press (at) enisa.europa.eu