Final Word from Monday, October 7, 2024
The relationship between the NÚKIB cybersecurity office and the telecoms operators has soured so much that they've stopped meeting about the wording of a new cybersecurity law. Pres. Jiří Grund of the APMS trade group told CNN Prima News on Fri. that NÚKIB wants powers to ban potentially nefarious technology that are absolutely unprecedented and that this would be the biggest blow to business freedoms since 1989. If the Czech state wants to take such action, he said, it should be done by the cabinet, and not by a mere government agency. But NÚKIB, as Grund surely knows, is no mere government agency. It's part of a strategic partnership with the U.S. and is implementing that country's "defend forward" strategy to "disrupt malicious cyber activity at its source." As we noted in the Friday Edition, the Fiala government isn't willing to assess the full risk of what it's doing. It's deliberately turning the fate of many Czech companies over to the geopolitical whims of a declining foreign power. [ Czech Republic cyber-security U.S. Cyber Command dialogue telecommunications association mobile-phone ]
Glossary of difficult words
to sour - to make or become unpleasant, acrimonious or difficult;
nefarious - (typically of an action or activity) wicked or criminal;
malicious - intending or intended to do harm;
defend forward - defined as "proactive observing, pursuing, and countering of adversary operations";
to assess - to evaluate or estimate the nature, ability or quality of;
whim - a sudden desire or change of mind, esp. one that is unusual or unexplained.