The Digital Transformation Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina successfully organised the second Cyber Security Summit that is supported by the project ”Innovation and Digitalisation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Bosnia and Herzegovina” that is implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation of the Federal Republic of Germany (BMZ).

More than 150 participants, representatives of different companies and institutions from throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina attended more than 20 different presentations about cyber threats, the greatest risks and possibilities to increase the protection from this type of danger.

Senad Džananović, Head of the Digital Transformation Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina, pointed out that this year’s Cyber Security Summit had met all expectations and offered extremely good presentations for all students. Seven conclusions were adopted at the end of the two-day conference. They will be the backbone of the future work of the association in the field of cyber security. The conclusions will be submitted to all decision-makers in order to improve the situation in this field. Conference participants concluded that it was necessary to:

• Actively work on further awareness raising and knowledge of organisations and the society in general in Bosnia and Herzegovina regarding cyber security;
• Systematically approach the issue of lack of personnel in the field of cyber security;
• Build capacities for practical training and simulation in the field of cyber security;
• Standardise the manner in which experiences related to cyber incidents are shared;
• Connect the community of experts on cyber security and map the currently available resources that can help in case of bigger cyber incidents;
• Promote good practices of institutions when it comes to the adoption of legislation;
• Organise comprehensive research about this topic in order to create a precise picture of the current state and make recommendations for improvements.

„We are extremely satisfied with this year’s conference and we can already say that Bosnia and Herzegovina has gotten an important event that will be additionally developed in the years ahead of us. Our goal is to become a single platform that will gather representatives from the business sector and different institutions, both domestic and international ones, in order to continuously raise the awareness about this important topic, and, more importantly, mutual networking for the purpose of reducing the risk and potential damages of cyber attacks. The adopted conclusions will be a clear lead as to what needs to be done in order for everyone in Bosnia and Herzegovina to be more protected from cyber threats”, said Džananović.

The purpose of investments in digitalisation in the framework of the project  ”Innovation and Digitalisation of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Bosnia and Herzegovina” is to make SMEs more competitive, knowledgeable, cost-effective and environmentally friendly. Networking, interaction and professional work of actors in this ecosystem are the basic aspects of project support of GIZ. In addition to the Government of Germany, the project is co-financed by the European Union, which is supporting the EU4DigitalSME programme for digital transformation support for SMEs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The project of Digital Transformation of SMEs is implemented by GIZ and EBRD.

“The digital era is bringing many benefits both in private life and business environment. The digital era has numerous advantages, but it also results in new challenges or segments that require significant attention in order to be able to use all advantages of digitalisation. One of these segments is also security. The security of all digitalised data is extremely important for successful business operations, maintaining the market position and improvement of competitiveness”, said Mirna Mekić, Communication Specialist from GIZ.