site.btaBulgaria Unprepared to Withstand Hybrid Attacks - GERB Floor Leader Tsvetanov

March 11 (BTA) - Bulgaria is not prepared to withstand
hybrid attacks "that are part and parcel of the daily play of
some countries outside the EU,"
GERB floor leader and Chairman of the parliamentary Internal
Security and Public Order Committee Tsvetan Tsvetanov said
Monday, speaking at a conference on cybersecurity in the EU.
Tsvetanov said that Russia is the country most often mentioned
as a country that can interfere in the European Parliament
elections due in May.

Tsvetanov said that at the moment Bulgaria has not developed a
mechanism to counteract fake news and "information brain-washing
 we are exposed to daily".

In Tsvetanov's words, the possibility of third countries' impact
 on the European Parliament elections must be limited.

The head of the Hanns Seidel Foundation branch in Bulgaria,
Roland Freudenstein, said that the biggest cybersecurity threats
 come from Russia.  Freudenstein noted the need for a stronger
response from the Western society in the fight against
misinformation and cyber crimes.

European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Mariya
Gabriel said that 61 per cent of the European citizens fear that
 there will be cyber attacks during the upcoming elections for
members of the European Parliament. Gabriel said that more than
30 countries are sources of cyber attacks. She said also that an
 early-warning system among EU member states will be created by
the end of the month for exchange in real time of information
about threats to the integrity of the European elections, and
whether the threat is internal or external.

The conference was opened by Sofia Mayor Yordanka Fandakova and
is organized by the Wilfried Martens Centre for European
Studies, the Hanns Seidel Foundation, and the GERB Association.
RY/ZH