From time to time, cyberwarfare surfaces on the ocean of the useless Italian political and sub-political talks.
Last week, waiting my turn to talk in a conference, I’ve heard a speaker claiming to “knows best” ? that said that in five year Italy will have its set of actual guidelines to enforce ENISA standards, advocating a stronger tie between industries and a government committee on critical infrastructure and all the usual vaporware that comes with the topic.
I stayed speechless while losing the count of the times that – in about 27 years on the field – I’ve heard such kind of nonsenses. These people care about the colour of the windows’ curtains while there a house still to be built. They think in term of “national committee”, “global report”, “breach notification” while they still have to succeed in convincing people in not leaving passwords on a monitor-stuck post-it. This reminds me a sketch from “I Maniaci“, an Italian movie from the Sixties, where His Excellence Micozzi, ministry of defense (actor Raimondo Vianello) alwyas followed the journalists questions’ by saying “we shall appoint a committee to look further into the matter”, even the day he was cautioned for alleged wrongdoing.
While the movie was supposed to by a comedy, seeing it today doesn’t elicit a laugh. The security issue ? is serious because, when the Echelon scandal exploded, we could claim that it was a relative threat to Italy since our communication infrastructure and our reliance upon were from stone-age. But now things have changed enough to allow an attack(er) to actually endanger Italy as a country. And I can’t stop thinking of ? the Italian approach being like a politburo of some (former) Eastern Block country, talking about Marxist orthodoxy while people in the squares was taking down Lenin’s statues.
We shall appoint a committee to look further into the matter.