Speech by Minister of Justice and Security van Weel at the ONE Conference

Speech | 02-10-2024

Good morning everyone,

Just five tram stops away from here, in the centre of The Hague, is the Binnenhof – the world’s oldest government complex still in use today. The seat of power in this country for 800 years and counting.

Although not right now, because the entire complex is undergoing a major renovation that will take several years.

Long ago, a deep moat was dug around the Binnenhof, to prevent enemies from being able to enter from any direction.

Today, all that remains of that moat is a pond. But soon the water will return, with a bridge over it giving access to the Binnenhof.

The moat will be restored not just because it looks nice, but also for security reasons. You can’t ram a vehicle into a building if there’s water in between. So, eight centuries on, a moat still serves a purpose.

The question I want to ask you today at this ONE Conference is: what is the cyber equivalent of a moat? How do we ensure that even in cyberspace we can protect ourselves and our property from accidents and attacks?

While at the same time preserving the openness we need to do business and stay connected.

Making our country more resilient in the face of crises and external attacks is a major priority for me. The government has allocated 42 million euros to build resilience against cyberattacks and cybercrime.

As cybersecurity professionals, you know that cyberattacks account for a large part of outside threat. So I’m glad you’re all here to contribute your thoughts, share your knowledge, and collaborate together on how we can defend ourselves in cyberspace even more effectively.

Our world is highly digitalised. And that’s especially true here in the Netherlands. Of course, this has all kinds of benefits both for our work and our private lives. You no longer have to leave your house to shop, and you don’t need to carry cash. You can order and pay for everything you need with a tap on your phone.

But this also makes us vulnerable. Because what if we’re under a cyber-attack? What if our systems crash? How would people cope? Who has cash at home these days? We might not think we need it, but in a cyber crisis it could turn out to be a basic life necessity. I want everyone to be aware of this.

Here in the Netherlands we want cybersecurity to be on everyone’s mind. And we want everyone to contribute to keeping the Netherlands digitally secure. Of course, there’s no such thing as absolute security. The reality is that you cannot anticipate everything. Sometimes things go wrong. And if a cyber incident does occur, we need to be able to respond effectively. I’ve said it before. And I’m saying it again, in black and white: get used to it. And more importantly: deal with it!

 
Let me give you an example. This summer there was a failure in the fibre-optic network of the Dutch Ministry of Defence. This caused a number of problems: the emergency services’ communication systems were disrupted, planes couldn’t take off from Eindhoven Airport and people couldn’t log in to public services. Although the impact was limited and control rooms were able to continue working, the outage exposed our vulnerability.
 

So it’s essential that we have a backup plan, for when systems are down for any length of time.

And it’s essential that we can identify the cause and get systems back up and running as quickly as possible.

Everyone – government, businesses and the public – should be asking: what do we do in a situation like this? What can we fall back on? And how do we fix the problem?

If we don’t start thinking about the answers to these questions until a network goes down, we’re too late. Does your organisation have a plan in place to make sure your business can continue to function even if you don’t have access to all your systems?

To minimise the impact of a disruption, good preparation is key. But of course, we’d rather prevent things from going wrong in the first place by having a state-of-the-art digital moat.

To that end, the government is implementing the Netherlands Cybersecurity Strategy. And transitioning from the Nationwide Coverage System to the Cyber Resilience Network.

Government funding alone is not enough. We all need to continue to invest:

- in cybersecurity,

- in technology,

- in relations at home and abroad,

- in knowledge sharing,

- in young talent in secondary and higher education. And in initiatives like Hackshield, which children aged between 8 and 12 took part in here yesterday.
 

And finally, we’ll have to keep practising scenarios together. I’m calling on all organisations to make practice, training and education an integral part of the cybersecurity approach. Not only within your own organisation, but also with each other. Because you can’t do it on your own.

Government organisations and businesses need to join forces. It’s all about public-private partnership. Working together on our digital moat. In our own country, and with our partners in the EU and beyond.
 

So I hope you will use this second day of the ONE Conference to meet new people, make connections and expand your cyberworld. Because cybersecurity is a responsibility we all share!

Thank you.