Testimony of José Filipe Alves, Information Security Officer and Member of the General Council of the University of Porto
In a context where cybersecurity plays an increasingly crucial role in protecting information and ensuring the continuity of academic and scientific activities, it is essential to strengthen mechanisms for preventing, detecting, and responding to digital incidents.
It is within this framework that the CSIRT FCCN, the FCT's digital service, plays a significant role in supporting higher education and research institutions, promoting a culture of security and greater digital resilience.
Recognizing this relevance, the University of Porto, through José Filipe Alves, shares its testimony, highlighting how continuous collaboration with the CSIRT FCCN has contributed to strengthening digital security, developing the maturity of internal teams, and increasing the capacity to respond to increasingly complex challenges in the Portuguese academic and scientific ecosystem.
To what extent has the support of the CSIRT FCCN increased the resilience and digital security of your institution over the years?
"The performance of the CSIRT FCCN is permanently guided by a credible, solid and transformative stance, contributing to the enrichment of the activities and results achieved by CSIRT.UPORTO, and to the increasing the cybersecurity culture from the University.
The CSIRT FCCN is effectively a model to follow, adapting to different phases and contexts, including the most recent ones, which are unprecedented in the field of Information Security. Its successive contributions to the Science, Technology and Society Network, whether through Incident detection and alerting, whether through the sharing of enriching information and experiences., have positively influenced the way CSIRT.UPORTO has been operating for two decades.
With assertive, conscious, and educational communication, the CSIRT FCCN has been the main vehicle for our team's success, continuously impacting and increasing the resilience and digital security of the University of Porto.”
Given the new cybersecurity challenges, how do you believe the CSIRT FCCN can continue to be a relevant partner for the Education and Research community?
"The CSIRT FCCN guides the efforts of the different institutions in the Science, Technology and Society Network, contributing to increasing their level of maturity in cybersecurity."
While RCTS CERT, and now as CSIRT FCCN, It is intrinsically linked to the creation of various incident response teams., including CSIRT.UPORTO. Through capacity-building activities and research into solutions that meet the needs of institutions, CSIRT FCCN fulfills its mission, aware of the challenges of the state of the art.
In Teaching and Research, strategic areas of the University of Porto, the CSIRT FCCN is a key partner in achieving strategic cybersecurity objectives, providing highly rigorous and committed services, contributing to improving the quality of services offered by Portuguese Higher Education Institutions to the communities they serve.
