Masaryk University Will Strengthen the Capacities of the Security Operations Centres in Central and Eastern Europe

The Institute of Computer Science of Masaryk University (ICS MUNI) started the implementation of a new project co-funded by the EU Programme Digital Europe to improve cybersecurity capacities in European academia. The three-year project with the acronym SOCCER is coordinated by AGH University based in Poland. It connects nine partners from five countries in Central and Eastern Europe, including ICS MUNI. The project focuses on developing Security Operations Centres (SOC) capabilities to provide safer cyberspace for university students and employees. Involvement in this project demonstrates a strong commitment of Masaryk University towards data and knowledge protection. Secure cyberspace at Masaryk University is safeguarded thanks to a long-term joint effort of the Institute of Computer Science (ICS MUNI) and the Faculty of Informatics (FI MUNI).

We live in the age of data, where information and data represent power and must be protected. Protecting data is crucial for upholding privacy, driving innovation, complying with regulations, and safeguarding trust and societal well-being. “All scientific data is nowadays stored electronically, and behind some data sets are often products of years of work of many people and contain many hours of work on the world´s most expensive research equipment. Modern universities and research institutions worldwide, including Masaryk University, are establishing robust data protection measures and developing their own Security Operations Centres to safeguard knowledge and personal data,” explains the director of ICS MUNI Jan Mysliveček.

There are still people who do not realise the importance of cybersecurity until they have lost some essential data or money. If the cybersecurity teams do their job well, people usually do not notice they exist. “The success of a cybersecurity team also depends on the cybersecurity literacy of the network users – in our case, on the employees and students at Masaryk University. Besides improving the skills of our cyber security team members, we will strive to increase the cybersecurity literacy of the MUNI employees and students,” explains the head of the cybersecurity division CSIRT-MU Tomáš Plesník.

The education sector witnessed a staggering 44% surge in cyber-attacks during 2022, which made the educational sector the most severely impacted industry throughout the year. Masaryk University is not an exception. The Czech Republic´s most modern and progressive university faces cyber-attacks almost daily. “Lately, the cyber-attacks grew not only in numbers but also in their level of sophistication. The cyber attackers do not shy away even from the academic sector or hospitals; therefore, we need to be ready,” says Tomáš Plesník.

The SOCCER project will strengthen the cybersecurity capabilities and resilience of the European academia by supporting the development of skills, readiness and capacities of the Security Operations Centres in the academic sector. The project partners will join forces to provide better monitoring, detection and response to cyber-attacks and threats, including knowledge and cyber threat intelligence sharing through vulnerability databases. The partners will leverage state-of-the-art artificial intelligence, including machine learning techniques and computing power, to innovate and improve the detection of malicious cyber activities. Another important goal is the popularisation of knowledge about Security Operations Centres and their development and building of a critical mass of awareness and cybersecurity skills across academia so that every academic and research community member can contribute to a safer cyberspace.

The project consortium connects partners from five countries: Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, and Lithuania. Czech Republic is represented by three partners, including Masaryk University (MU) with the cybersecurity team CSIRT-MU from the Institute of Computer Science, Tomas Bata University (UTB) and Czech Education and Scientific Network (CESNET).