Official: Romanian IT workers no longer leave Romania for salaries, but opportunities

IT people no longer leave Romania for salaries, because it is much better to be an IT worker in Cluj than to be an IT worker in London, but they go to London for the opportunities they have there, Sabin Sarmas, chairman of the Committee for Digitisation of the Chamber of Deputies, said on Friday at the Energy Cyber Security Forum."You should know that IT workers no longer leave Romania for salaries, because it is much better to be an IT worker in Cluj than to be an IT worker in London, I guarantee you that. They go to London for the opportunities there, because they are on a whole different level. The opportunity for us also comes from these young people who have left home. And we're talking about opportunities. Energy companies have the capacity and the opportunity to do entrepreneurship, they have the capacity within them to develop new start-ups, spin offs that work on, for example, cybersecurity. Of course you can't avoid companies that can give you cybersecurity and cyber resilience solutions tomorrow, but if we want to really value the Romanian school, if we want to create more added value, more intellectual property, Romanian IT, then we have to create our own capabilities and opportunity. You should know that, in terms of cyber security, not only Romania suffers, but also the most developed countries in the world. There is a point at which, if we take Romanian talent, whether it is in Romania or abroad, we can, with the know-how of those in the energy industry, create such solutions," Sarmas said.The MP added that Romania has a great opportunity by running the European Cybersecurity Centre."A great opportunity for Romania is this European Cybersecurity Competence Centre, which will fund start-ups, well-established companies, regardless of their coming from the IT area. It will encourage research at the border between domains and it is the first time that Romania is seriously put on the map and has the possibility to share European money, because, in fact, that is what this is all about," Sabin Sarmas mentioned.According to the official, companies in Romania are targeted by more than 30,000 cyber incidents, and for some of these, significant amounts are paid to recover sensitive data.Professionals from the energy and IT industry participated in the first edition of the Energy Cyber Security Forum, organised by Distributie Energie Electrica Romania, in Cluj-Napoca on 24-25 November.