The National Coordination Center for Cybersecurity is stepping up cooperation with international cyber technology vendors

On August 6, 2020, a regular meeting of specialists of the National Coordination Center for Cybersecurity (hereinafter – the NCCC) with representatives of international companies specializing in producing and implementing technologies and equipment for developing modern cybersecurity systems in Ukraine took place.

By the Decree of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy of 28.01.2020 №27, the capabilities of the NCCC were strengthened and the format of its activities was changed, in particular, cybersecurity specialists from the private sector were involved.

Secretary of the NSDC of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov stressed on the need for close cooperation with the international IT-business. In May 2020, work intensified on the establishment of a cyber-initiative coordination center, namely the National Coordination Center for Cybersecurity, which received a new modern location in the “Parkovy” business center. This platform should become a meeting place for experts and a reference point for the implementation of relevant national projects and initiatives.

During the meeting, representatives of companies - a joint team of engineers from Cisco, IBM, Fortinet, Radware - together with the NCCC experts discussed key technological aspects of the national cybersecurity system, focusing primarily on detailed architectures and components that should be implemented in Ukraine in the short and long term.

In their turn, the NCCC specialists presented to the participants of the meeting the new location of the NCCC and plans for its development.

Emphasis was placed on the main goal of the NCCC: to attract the technological and engineering potential of direct producers to cooperate with the NCCC, to use the existing installation base in Ukraine for critical infrastructure, to deepen cooperation with cybersecurity actors and private companies.

The engineers focused on the integrated architecture of the national cybersecurity system and, in particular, on the development of components such as the national sensor and monitoring infrastructure, traffic clearing and DDoS attack centers, options for launching a large-scale vulnerability assessment system, building a threat and incident investigation system at the NCCC, digital forensics and malware analysis, scaling the cyber threat information exchange platform (MISP, etc.), an incident coordination and automation platform, a national cloud platform for cybersecurity services, implementing the secure national DNS, malware protection systems (EDR), e-mail protection systems for government officials, web services protection systems.

The NCCC specialists paid specific focus on the need for technological cooperation of the center with private companies and industry physical infrastructures, including through the organization of operational interaction (so-called “operational awareness monitors”) - this will allow rapid and coordinated response to incidents in cyberspace.

The logic of the proposed technological architectures is represented by the classic sequence “to see cyber anomalies and attacks, to analyze them, to react, to protect, to prevent”.

Those participants of the meeting representing international companies began preparations for piloting these areas in order to quickly determine the most optimal cyber technologies for further implementation and scaling.

Today, Ukraine receives significant international consulting, technical and financial opportunities, and therefore the efficient use of resources must be preceded by a detailed study by specialists of relevant technological areas.