On June 7th, amid the remarkable Moldova Digital Summit 2024—a key milestone in Moldova’s digital transformation—high-profile guests and top speakers toured the construction site of the “CYBERCOR” National Institute for Cybersecurity Innovation. They were greeted by the Rector of UTM, Professor Viorel Bostan, and the Vice-Rector for Digitalization, Dr. Dinu Țurcanu. The guests were impressed by the progress made on the extensive 1,500 square meter project.
Christopher Burns, Chief Digital Development Officer at USAID, along with John Riordan, Acting USAID Moldova Mission Director; Rodica Miron, Senior Project Manager at USAID Moldova; Laura Sigelmann, Digital Technology Program Specialist at USAID; Sophia Laujaine, Senior Advisor at USAID; Alain Sanchez, EMEA CISO at Fortinet; Lucian Nanau, Major Account Manager at Fortinet; Robert Guțuleac, Country Manager at NetSafe (Fortinet’s distributor in Moldova); Doina Nistor, Director of the Future Technologies Project; and Sergiu Rabii, Director of the Future Technologies Sector, emphasized the importance of the “CYBERCOR” National Institute for Cybersecurity Innovation, highlighting its potential to become Moldova’s flagship in the field of Cybersecurity. Through its launch, CYBERCOR aims to enhance information technology and cybersecurity education, increasing national awareness and skills in these areas.
The institute’s goals include:
- Enhancing cybersecurity in both public and private sectors in Moldova.
- Creating and developing cybersecurity careers for students and young professionals.
- Investing in cybersecurity as a growth industry for Moldova.
The creation of CYBERCOR at the Technical University of Moldova is supported by the Future Technologies Project, funded by USAID, the Government of Sweden, and the United Kingdom. “The establishment of CYBERCOR represents a strong response to the need for a secure and open cyberspace, which will increase citizens’ confidence in digital tools and services. The acute shortage of cybersecurity specialists makes this institution necessary to face the growing cyber threats,” said Rector Viorel Bostan. He also mentioned that CYBERCOR will include a thematic laboratory for studying various scenarios useful to both public and private institutions.
Rector Bostan thanked the strategic partners—USAID, the Government of Sweden, and the United Kingdom—for their support in developing Moldova’s creative industries and engineering sectors, which in turn create well-paying jobs. Their combined efforts focus on enhancing the digital landscape, strengthening cybersecurity, and fostering economic growth.
Fortinet’s tools and platforms, which provide accelerated hardware performance and multiple integrated security layers to protect networks and applications from threats, are seen as vital partners in the functioning of CYBERCOR. “I am convinced that such educational partners are essential for CYBERCOR’s success. I extend sincere thanks for their openness, especially in signing the Academic Partnership Agreement. Fortinet’s range of innovative protection and content analysis technologies, inter-network screens, VPN, antimalware, unauthorized access prevention, application control, web filtering, antispam, wireless controllers, WAN accelerators, management products, email protection, database, and end-user protection will become an integral part of cybersecurity in Moldova,” stated Vice-Rector Țurcanu.
Fortinet, a global leader in integrated cybersecurity solutions, has been named a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for LAN infrastructure – wired and wireless. Fortinet’s innovative approach, using Security Fabric unified by FortiOS, has enabled close integration of its wired and wireless products, positioning it as an industry leader. On April 30th, an Academic Partnership Agreement was signed between CYBERCOR and Fortinet, marking a significant step towards offering top-notch perspectives and certifications to students and professionals, preparing them to become network security experts using Fortinet’s technologies and solutions.
At the end of the visit, the guests were invited by the university rector to the CYBERCOR launch event scheduled for September.
