“Leading the establishment of EU CyberNet has been a unique experience and I am thankful to the Estonian Information System Authority RIA for trusting me with this opportunity, and to my team. Since 2019, the idea of a EU-wide cyber capacity building network has by now materialised in a 11-strong team in three countries and on two continents that, with the support of more than 200 cybersecurity experts and 40 organisations from around Europe, offers experts regular opportunities for professional development and experience sharing around the world as well as support to the European Commission in the area of cybersecurity. Our trainings and seminars have already had more than 700 participants. I am sure that both RIA and the European Commission are satisfied with the achievements and the time is right for me to move on,” said Siim Alatalu.

The new Project Director Erkki Leego commented, that building a community of cyber experts in the European Union and using them to promote the security of the digital society in different parts of the world is a vital mission and an exciting challenge. “The next focus of the project is to set up an oiled-up machine to deploy cyber security challenges around the world. We will continue to develop knowledge services for the EU CyberNet community. Our soon-to-open regional centre of excellence, LAC4 in Latin America and the Caribbean, offers new horizons. I am grateful to Siim Alatalu for his hard work setting up the project during the pandemic that did not very well support international cooperation,” stated Leego.

We wish the best of luck to Siim and Erkki in their new upcoming challenges.