Italy’s new cyber czar. Bruno Frattasi, the current Prefect of Rome, is the new Director-General of Italy’s National Cybersecurity Agency (ACN). On Thursday, the Council of Ministers approved Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s nomination.
- Mr Frattasi succeeds Roberto Baldoni, who resigned on Monday from leading the authority he had been heading since its establishment in August 2021.
Who is Bruno Frattasi? Born in Naples in 1956, married with two children and a degree in Law from the Federico II University, he entered the prefectorial career in 1981 and was appointed in 2005.
- He served as Chief of Staff at the Interior Ministry during the Conte II and Draghi governments (2019-2022).
- Then he became Prefect of Rome in October 2022, taking over from Matteo Piantedosi, who joined PM Meloni’s government as Interior Minister.
- He also published several specialised essays on anti-mafia documentation and co-authored a host of scholarly publications commenting on the anti-mafia code and the financial traceability of payments for public contracts.
International challenges… Italy, too, is dealing with the consequences of growing international tensions between superpowers and a high-intensity conflict being fought on the borders of Europe. In 2022, the country was the target of 7.6% of global cyberattacks (compared to 3.4% in 2021).
- In absolute numbers, there were 188 attacks against Italian institutions, an increase of 169% compared to the previous year. 83% of them were high or critical in severity.
- These figures emerge from the Clusit Report 2023, presented by Clusit, the Italian Association for Information Security. Also, they’re likely understated, given that some victims tend not to disclose the attacks they have suffered.
… and internal ones. The ACN is called upon to manage the €623 million earmarked by the EU-bankrolled National Recovery and Resilience Plan to strengthen cybersecurity defences in the country’s public administrations. The Agency must also manage a 1.2% share of the gross national investments for 2023 to implement the National Cybersecurity Strategy.
