By decision of the Council of Ministers, dated 21 December 2021, the Digital Security Authority (DSA) has been designated as the National Cybersecurity Coordination Centre (NCCC-CY) for the Republic of Cyprus.

The mission of the NCCC is to provide knowledge and facilitate access to know-how on cybersecurity industrial, technological and research issues. The NCCC acts as the national contact point for the Cybersecurity Community and supports the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre (ECCC) in fulfilling its mission and objectives.

The NCCC’s main objective is to ensure that all stakeholders, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), has adequate support and access to knowledge and research and development results in the field of cybersecurity, with the purpose of making them sufficiently secure. The Centre undertakes actions to help SMEs in Cyprus to be active, competitive and capable of contributing significantly to the leading position of the European Union in the field of cybersecurity. The vision is for the Republic of Cyprus to become a pioneer in the field of Cybersecurity, ensuring a reliable and protected cyberspace for all citizens and businesses.

According to Article 7 of Regulation (EU) 2021/887 for the establishment of the European Competence Centre for Industrial, Technological and Research for Cybersecurity issues (Competence Centre) and the network of national coordination centres, the National Cybersecurity Coordination Centre has the following responsibilities:

  • to act as point of contact at national level for the Community to support the Competence Centre in fulfilling its mission and objectives, in particular by coordinating the Community at the National level,
  • to provide expertise and actively contribute to the strategic tasks set out in Article 5 of the Regulation, taking into account relevant national and regional challenges for cybersecurity in different sectors,
  • to promote, encourage and facilitate the participation of civil society, industry, in particular start-ups and SMEs, the academic and research communities and other stakeholders at national level in cross-border projects and in cybersecurity actions funded by relevant Union programmes,
  • to provide technical assistance to stakeholders by supporting them in the application phase for projects managed by the Competence Centre,
  • to seek to establish synergies with relevant activities at national, regional and local level, such as national policies on research, development and innovation in the area of cybersecurity, and in particular those policies stated in the National Cybersecurity Strategy,
  • to implement specific actions for which grants have been awarded by the Competence Centre, including through the provision of financial support to third parties in accordance with Article 204 of the Financial Regulation (EU) 2018/1046, under conditions specified in the grant agreements concerned, without prejudice to its competences and those of other competent authorities in the Republic for education and taking into account the relevant tasks of ENISA, to engage with national authorities regarding possible contributions to the promotion and dissemination of cybersecurity educational programmes,
  • to promote and disseminate the relevant outcomes of the work of the Network of National Competence Centres, the Community and the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre at national, regional or local level,
  • to assess requests by entities established in the Republic to become part of the Community,
  • to advocate and promote the involvement of relevant entities in the activities arising from the Competence Centre, the Network and the Community, and to monitor the level of engagement with and the amount of public financial support awarded for cybersecurity research, development and deployments.