TIRANA-JANUARY 9, 2013   Today, USAID celebrated the completion of its Albanian Cyber-Security Program, a two-year initiative that helped build the Government of Albania’s (GoA) capacity to prevent and respond to cyber-security incidents.  USAID/Albania Mission Director, Mr. Jim Barnhart, and Albania’s Minister of Innovation and ICT, Mr. Genc Pollo, delivered opening remarks at the ceremony.  As a result of the project, Albania has established the Albanian Cyber Incident Response Agency (ALCIRT), a new cyber-security facility that will protect Albania from cyber threats that result from natural disasters to cyber-attacks.

The project utilized the expertise of Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute (SEI) which conducted a series of workshops and training to help key GoA and non-governmental institutions understand cyber-security models, build skills to resist operational threats, and develop processes for managing cyber-security incidents.

This week, SEI experts conducted a series of training sessions and table top exercises with representatives and heads of various GoA agencies, including the National Agency for Information Society, General Directorate of Taxes, Public Administration Department, Albanian State Police, etc.

ALCIRT now has the capacity to independently plan and implement strategies, gather computer security incident reports, design and maintain a database of security incidents, develop a warning notification service, and conduct risk analyses.  Key to the mission of ALCIRT will be continuing to strengthen relations with peer security organizations.

For several years information and communication technology (ICT) has been integral component of USAID programming in Albania, for example by introducing several e-government reforms which have had positive impacts on issues of transparency and governance. The GoA is currently implementing under the leadership of the Ministry of Innovation and ICT several programs to increase the digitization of government services and ministries. The ability to protect these new systems and services will be increasingly important for Albania.

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