Cyber attacks, Threat Hunting & Investigation Competence Centre is born in Naples
The Federico II University research laboratory on computer security technologies. The Threat Hunting & Investigation Competence Centre is established.
It is in the shadow of Vesuvius that the best experiments are born. The confirmation comes from the Federico II University of Naples where the university, together with
Group-IB,
will create a Threat Hunting & Investigation Competence Centre.
The goal is to promote the progress of the university cybersecurity branch. It is no coincidence, in fact, that Group-IB is one of the leading providers of solutions for the detection and prevention of cyber attacks, the identification of online fraud, the investigation of high-tech crimes and the protection of intellectual property.
The university campus of San Giovanni a Teduccio is increasingly confirmed as a “Silicon Valley” in Italian sauce, a flagship for the city but also for the Italian university world.
The project
To understand how important this initiative is, it is necessary to take a look at the numbers. Suffice it to say that, according to the Cyber Observatory, in the first half of 2021 there were over one million alerts received from Italian users relating to a cyber attack against their personal data, up 56.3% compared to the previous survey. In this period, there was an 18% increase in data found on the dark web compared to the second half of 2020.
In the first half of 2021, there was a +18% growth in data found on the dark web compared to the second half of 2020. It is precisely in these environments that the largest amount of information obtained through computer fraud is found, just think that users alerted in Italy for data detected on the dark web are 72.9%, compared to 27.1% of subjects alerted for data detected on the public web (open web).
But what specifically will the Threat Hunting & Investigation Competence Centre be? It will be a real laboratory for students, who will be able to make use of the most pioneering cybersecurity technologies and study the various types of threats and known cybercriminals, as well as their evolution. The Threat Hunting & Investigation Competence Centre will serve as a platform for cyber investigation training for both university students and faculty. An initiative that is more necessary than ever if we consider how many computer crimes remain totally unpunished due to the lack of investigative tools and professionalism.
“The competence center becomes part of the numerous research and training activities promoted by Federico II in collaboration with the main players in the business sector, with the aim of cultivating innovation and mutual contamination,” explains Simon Pietro Romano, professor of Computer Network Security at the Federico II University of Naples
The focus on cybersecurity represents a fundamental piece in the general mosaic of skills that are increasingly in demand in a social, political and economic context in which reality and digital spaces intersect and influence each other, in increasingly articulated ways. The cooperation with Group-IB will allow us to shape highly specialized professional profiles, capable of making their contribution in various operational environments thanks to the skills acquired in a dynamic academic context, characterized by a very high level of innovation”.
But let’s try to understand how the training of future “cyber professionals” will take place. There will be three main areas: knowledge transfer, industrial projects and internships for students.
“We are delighted to inaugurate this competence center in collaboration with Group-IB. Federico II is increasingly at the forefront of training initiatives on IT security issues – underlines the rector of the University of Frederick Matteo Lorito – We aim, once again, to train innovative professional profiles ready for ‘new jobs’ and new employment challenges for the market of the present and the immediate future”.
