"Italy arrived late on the topic of cybersecurity“, The incident of the Delegated Authority for the security of the Republic Franco Gabrielli at the hearing in the Constitutional Affairs and Transport committees of the Chamber. The next step is the conversion of the decree regulating the Agency into law. In this regard Gabrielli specified: "We can no longer afford to waste time on an issue that may not travel at the speed of light but cannot travel at the times we are used to". The undersecretary to the presidency of the Council then underlined that in Germany the cyber security agency was born in 1991 and has 1.200 employees while in France it has been operational since 2009 with over a thousand operators.
The former Chief of Police analyzed the problem at 360 ° explaining to the honorable members of the commissions that critical infrastructures and those that have to do with the essential sectors of a state are subjected to threats of all kinds, of organized crime, of terrorism and also by subjects who refer to state interests since cyber domination will increasingly be an element in which competition between states will be measured. There is therefore the need, continues Gabrielli, to equip ourselves as soon as possible with a structure that can cope with this delay and that will have to deal with everything that has to do with "cyber resilience", an activity which will have to do with national security but will be quite distinct from intelligence activity.
"The issues dealt with by the agency relate in all respects to national security and therefore this matter must be placed in the context of national security. But at the same time - explains the undersecretary - it must be clearly distinguished from the role of the intelligence sector. If it is true that the agency will be called upon to be the instrument through which the premier will implement the country's cyber security policies, if it is true that it will have as its object the construction of security which is a precondition for managing cyber attacks, it is also true that it must be distinguished and separated both from the action of cyber investigation, which is up to the police and the judiciary, and from cyber defense (where the armed forces already play a leading role) both from cyber intelligence, which must have not only defensive connotations but also of attack because it is the way in which a defense is best managed".
The difficult process that led to the birth of the Agency. "The situation of the sector with respect to the issue of cybersecurity was absolutely critical, a hypertrophic mechanism had been created at the head of the Dis which completely upset the law 124 (our security agencies rule, ed) and it was producing great fibrillations as the Agencies, rightly, asked for an operation that often collided with the role of Dis. The Agency will not be an element of weakening the sector, but it will strengthen it because the sector will go back to doing what it has to do, making the intelligence activity work for the security of the country ".