16.02.2023

ROMANIAN CITIZENS WILL BE NOTIFIED WHEN A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ROMANIAN STATE VIEWS THEIR DATA IN THE GOVERNMENT CLOUD

Romanian citizens will be notified when a representative of the Romanian state views their data in the government cloud. Access to the data in the government cloud will be registered and audited, this foresees an approved government decision, announced the minister of digitization Sebastian Burduja.

“This is a very complex piece of legislation, it required 30 opinions and viewpoints, and it addresses several important areas: the principles of the government cloud platform and how the government cloud interacts with clouds provided by private companies; the classified information policy; the type of data belonging to the government private cloud; the type of data that may be in cloud systems provided by private companies; the access to this data, respectively the way in which Romanians will be informed in practice, in real time, when the Romanian state, state institutions examine their data; the interoperability zone and so on," Burduja said.

He emphasized that the data of Romanians will be in a safe, secure place on the territory of Romania in accordance with the criterion of sovereignty of the data of Romanians, which will be implemented by 2026, as indicated in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

"Probably the most important element is interoperability. Last year we passed the Interoperability Act in Parliament. This will allow the migration [of the data] of at least 30 institutions of the Romanian state within the government framework by 2026, and also [the possibility] to apply the "once and only once" principle so that Romanian citizens do not have to go around like fools to the counters of various institutions, the state will ask them for certain information only once, after which the institutions are obliged to exchange the information with each other," said Burduja.

"The administrator of the government cloud is the Digitalization Authority of Romania and its role is very well outlined in this government decision, it is the most important role in the cloud project," Burduja added.

According to him, an important component of the access of the private environment to this cloud is provided. Cyber security is provided by Cyberint, a unit of the Romanian Intelligence Service, with a very clearly defined role in cyber attacks.

"And of course, at the physical infrastructure level, the data centers are under the administration of the Special Telecommunications Service," Burduja added.

As for the migration of the institutions' databases to the government cloud, the Minister of Digitization said that this will happen as a result of an investment of 100 million euros provided under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.