SMART BALKANS PROJECT

Summary

The Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS), as part of the SMART Balkans project, is developing a program to address emerging threats like cyber-attacks, fake news, privacy breaches, and critical infrastructure security. KCSS aims to provide research-based expertise to enhance institutional responses, promote public awareness, and support institutional restructuring. In the first year, they plan to publish reports on topics such as critical infrastructure and political-private partnerships, hosting conferences and using infographics and videos for public education.

Details

In the context of the SMART Balkans project, Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (KCSS) aims to develop a targeted program that will effectively identify, analyze and address entities responsible for ensuring privacy and data protection, as well as safeguarding against cyber attacks that pose a threat to the country, the region, and beyond. KCSS has been vigilant in monitoring global security and defense trends, particularly with a forward-looking approach to identify potential future threats and risks. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Russia’s growing influence in Kosovo and the wider region, as well as geopolitical and security shifts on the global stage, have made our region increasingly vulnerable to a range of dangers, including cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns, breaches of privacy and personal data security, terrorism, and threats to critical infrastructure. 

The program aimed at hybrid or future threats is designed to promote awareness, research, and advocacy efforts to increase general understanding of non-conventional dangers such as cyber attacks, deliberate dissemination of fake news, infringement of privacy and personal data, potential targeting of critical infrastructure, and other hybrid risks. As part of the SMART Balkans project, KCSS seeks to develop internal organizational capabilities to offer research-based expertise to institutional responses to these challenges. While the program will prioritize needs assessment(s) and monitoring, KCSS will leverage the expertise gained to directly support the enhancement of institutional capacities and executive agencies in these areas. By doing so, KCSS aims to become a mechanism that will help state institutions in their institutional restructuring to address hybrid security risks more effectively in the future. Additionally, the program aims to provide credible and educational information to citizens, ultimately protecting them from fake news, disinformation, and cyber attacks. 

In the first year of implementation, KCSS plans to publish a series of research reports that will explore key topics related to cyber security and critical infrastructure in the country. These topics include the development of mechanisms such as the Division for Critical Infrastructure within the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Agency for Cyber Security within the Ministry of Defense, drawing on models from other countries. Additionally, the reports will address the role of political-private partnerships in the field of cyber security and critical infrastructure, as well as analyzing what constitutes critical infrastructure based on the current law. The findings of these reports will be presented at three conferences, which will bring together various stakeholders from relevant fields. KCSS will also undertake awareness-raising activities to educate the general public on these topics. To achieve this, the report findings will be transformed into infographics and videos, which will be distributed across the organization’s social media platforms. 

The following links provide detailed information about the activities that have already been implemented in the scope of this project: 

https://qkss.org/en/lajmi/qkss-organizon-trajnim-dy-ditor-lidhur-me-temen-e-sigurise-kibernetike

https://qkss.org/en/publikimet/how-can-we-leverage-european-and-regional-practices-to-enhance-critical-infrastructure-identification-in-kosovo

Additional links

https://www.facebook.com/smartbalkansproject

https://www.instagram.com/smartbalkans/

https://www.youtube.com/@smartbalkans/videos