The partnership between the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic and FEE CTU was confirmed by signing a memorandum of cooperation in November 2023 by the Head of the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic Mgr. Jana Kotalíková and the Dean of FEE CTU, Professor Petr Páta. The partnership of the institutions already completed its first six months. During these months, all key modules of the pilot project have been launched.
"The Office of the Government is strengthening its capacity in the field of cyber security and therefore needs a strong and independent partner in the field of information security management system. The Faculty of Electrical Engineering of CTU has become just that. The students helped us to monitor the current state of our systems and trained a number of employees on safe behavior on the Internet. I also very much appreciate the fact that we were able to set up conditions for long-term student internships. The cooperation is so beneficial for both the public sector and the university," said Head of the Government Office of the Czech Republic Mgr. Jana Kotalíková.
"Cooperation with the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic is an example of a project where we have the opportunity to transfer the results of our research into practice in a top state institution and strengthen our cooperation with the government and public sector. We also see it as part of the social responsibility of our faculty and the university that our researchers are involved in the training of employees of the office," said Professor Petr Páta, Dean of the CTU Faculty of Economics.
Government employees see cybersecurity as important
"We conducted an initial system analysis and monitoring of the state of the systems, which was the first necessary step in establishing a plan for increasing the resilience of the entire office to cyber attacks," said Dr. Jaroslav Burčík, head of the Cyber Security Centre at the FEE.
According to Dr. Burčík, it is crucial that the knowledge development programme for employees and managers has been successfully launched. So far, 38 employees of the Office have been trained on safe behaviour on the Internet. The training for end-users from various departments, including managers, is practically oriented - they learn, among other things, how to identify fake e-mails, and spoofed URLs or how to avoid the most common cyber threats. Staff also got to try out some tasks, such as identifying viruses in downloaded files.
"The added value of the training is that it reflects the specific conditions of the office and its internal processes. In the coming months, more staff will undergo the training and some of them will also undergo a more advanced training programme as part of the Cyber Security Academy at our faculty. These courses are led by experienced practitioners and are designed to be studied remotely, including in the labs," explained Dr. Jaroslav Burčík.
Three students of FEE CTU as new employees of the Government Office of the Czech Republic
The cooperation between the top state office and a leading academic institution also included setting up conditions for long-term student internships. Three students from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Czech Technical University successfully passed the selection procedure and joined the Office as employees in the summer. They are students Vojtěch Žák, Jakub Mojzík and Filip Cendelín. The aim of these internships is to prepare experts for the Authority's internal IT systems and thus strengthen its internal expertise in the field of cyber security. The trainees are currently familiarising themselves with the Authority's internal systems, but in time they should also perform highly specialised activities.
"My main motivation was to gain practical experience and link it to the theoretical knowledge acquired during my studies. I was also attracted by learning about the non-traditional environment and the functioning of this institution," said Filip Cendelín, a trainee. Cendelín wants to focus on telecommunications after school. "This field also has a wide range of activities, so I cannot exclude that my path will lead me to the public sector, perhaps even the state administration," he added.
Another intern, Jakub Mojzík, said he was interested in the way the network is managed at the Government Office. "I like the idea that I can contribute to its modernisation," said the recent graduate of the Master's degree programme in Electronics and Communication, who is professionally interested in designing parts of communication systems. The third trainee from FEE, Vojtěch Žák, was attracted by the opportunity to get to know an unfamiliar network, analyse its functional and non-functional aspects and, on the basis of this, propose modifications for more pleasant access and management of the network. "This also entails its security and closure to the outside world and its possible attacks," the student said.
