Azerbaijan strengthening cyber defense with support from Estonia's eGA

The Estonian e-Governance Academy (eGA) plans to participate in capacity-building initiatives in the field of cyber diplomacy in Azerbaijan, eGA Senior Cybersecurity Expert Elsa Neeme told journalists on the sidelines of the seminar "Cybersecurity Training Series: Improving Cyber Resilience in the Eastern Partnership Countries" held in Baku, Report informs.

"This area is quite well developed in Azerbaijan and is certainly one of the priority areas for future cooperation. Together with our partners, particularly the Azerbaijan Cybersecurity Organizations Association (ACOA) and the Central Bank, we are working on creating awareness-raising mechanisms for various target groups. Our goal is to explain in an accessible way to end users how to protect themselves online, as well as to conduct targeted activities for critical infrastructure facilities. The plan is quite extensive," Neeme emphasized.

Speaking about the theme of the event, the expert noted that the joint work with Azerbaijani colleagues is focused on capacity building, but this issue goes far beyond the scope of a single country.

"The project is oriented toward Azerbaijan, but since cyber threats are transboundary by nature, cooperation between partners and the European Union is of paramount importance. This is necessary to ensure the uninterrupted operation of vital services, such as banking services that we use daily. We strive to make this training bilateral and beneficial both for Azerbaijan and for our team of experts," she noted.

According to her, it is not only about transferring knowledge but also about receiving feedback from the Azerbaijani side regarding threat vectors and the most pressing risks.

"It is important to discuss threat mitigation methods, existing practices in Azerbaijan, as well as our experience in countering the changing risk landscape in Europe. In addition, we are conducting a course for incident management units, particularly for CERT teams," Neeme added.