The First Vice President and Security Advisor, Josu Erkoreka, accompanied by the Minister of Economic Development, Industry and Environment, Arantxa Tapia, chaired, this morning, the constituent meeting of Cyberzaintza, the new Basque Cybersecurity Agency that was created to combat, the threats derived from the use of the internet and new technologies in Euskadi.

This new Agency will be located in the Araba Technology Park (Miñano), specifically, in the headquarters of the current “Basque Cybersecurity Centre”.

One of the first tasks of this Council has been to approve the statutes that establish the legal and operational bases of Cyberzaintza, outlining its objectives, functions and structure that will soon be submitted to the Governing Council for approval. The new Agency will work mainly on three fronts:

• Cybercrime: in coordination with the Ertzaintza, “Cyberzaintza” will take care of the public security of Euskadi, pursuing cybercrime and protecting the country's critical and sensitive infrastructure.
• Protection of public infrastructure and data: the new agency will protect and ensure the proper functioning of the digital infrastructures of the Basque public sector.
• Protection of infrastructure and business data: in coordination with the economic promotion team of the Basque Government, it will promote the business culture of having more secure and resilient cyber environments that allow the sustainable development of Basque society.
•  Investigate and analyze cyber incidents and cyber attacks.

The meeting concluded with an analysis of crime data for the first half of 2023: one in every 4 crimes reported in the Basque Country are already perpetrated through new technologies. Specifically, during this period, 12,878 cybercrimes have occurred, 31% more compared to the same period last year. The vast majority of them continue to be cyber scams that account for 89% of all cybercrimes:

1. Cyber scams: 11,508, 30.5% more than in the first half of 2022.
2. Cyberfakes: 505, 9% more than in the first half of 2022.
3. Cyber threats and Cyber coercion: 390, 8% more than in the first half of 2022.
4. Discovery and revelation of secrets through new technologies: 89, 2% more than in the first half of 2022.
5. Sexual cybercrimes: 36, 71% more than in the first half of 2022.
6. Cyberattacks: 44, 144% more than in the first half of 2022.