Madrid/Seville, (EFE).- Andalusia invested 19.15 million euros in cybersecurity last year. This represents 27.75 percent of the total territorial administrations. According to the report corresponding to the last financial year that the ICT Adjudications portal has just published.
The autonomous communities globally invested 37 million euros in 226 contracts. 16.26% of what the public administrations spent jointly on the protection of their computer systems. And local entities another 31.95 million, 14%, in 323 contracts.
According to the aforementioned report, the total investment in cybersecurity by the Spanish public administrations during the year 2022 was close to 228 million euros. Through a total of 880 awards.
With a total close to 159 million euros in 331 contracts, the General State Administration was in first position, with 69.73% of the total, as the most investor in this area last year. Both in investments by open bidding (94.51 million) and by centralized purchases (64.41 million).
very positive investment
The report points out that the total investment during 2022 “has been very positive.” And that public administrations “are increasingly aware of the need that exists with regard to the protection of their systems”.
Adding the regional and municipal investment, the communities in which the most investment was made were Andalusia, Catalonia and the Basque Country. That totaled 36.11 million euros, that is, 52.33% of all territorial administrations and 15.84% of all public administrations.
Andalusia occupied the first position with 19.15 million, 27.75% of the total territorial administrations. Followed by Catalonia, with 9.66 million, 14%, and the Basque Country, with 7.3 million, 10.58%.
By number of awards, between these three communities they added 283 contracts, 32.16% of the total awards for the year. With Catalonia in first place (116), ahead of Andalusia (109) and the Basque Country (58).
By organisations, the Institut Català de la Salut ranked ninth in the total number of public entities, with 3.91 million in four contracts. In a classification led by the General Secretariat of Digital Administration of Spain (SGAD). With an investment volume of more than 45.6 million, which used 20% of the total in 2022.
Projects throughout Spain
As regards the winning companies, the Telefónica Soluciones Joint Venture – Indra IT Solutions was the leader, with 38.35 million euros (16.83%). Followed by Telefónica Soluciones, with 35 million (15%). And the Joint Venture Inetum Spain – Telefónica Soluciones – Telefónica de España, with 16.85 million (7.39%).
On the other hand, the report includes, in second place among the five projects with “greater interest for strategic or practical reasons” the deployment of a Technical Security Office and Cybersecurity Operations Center of the Valladolid City Council for 1.6 million euros .
In fourth place appears the mixed contracting of the services and associated supplies of telephony, redundant communications, storage and processing in the cloud of the Parliament of Andalusia for 156,000 euros and in fifth place the services of the Security Office of the Cantabrian Health Service for 512,000 euros.
The analysis of the consulting firm Adjudicaciones TIC affirms that “cybersecurity in the Spanish public administrations is a critical issue. Due to the amount of sensitive and confidential information that is handled in these entities”. Since “the personal, financial and strategic data of citizens and of the State itself are stored in computer systems and, therefore, are susceptible to being the object of computer attacks”.
Increase in cyber attacks
“For this reason -he adds-, in recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of cyberattacks against Spanish public administrations” and “there are still challenges in terms of cybersecurity” such as “the lack of sufficient investment in security technology and the shortage of personnel specialized in cybersecurity”.
For this reason, “it is essential to continue strengthening computer security in public administrations to protect confidential information and guarantee the confidence of citizens in the use of online public services,” he concludes.
Among the most serious cyberattacks suffered by the territorial administrations in Spain is the one perpetrated by the group of hackers RansomHouse against the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona last March, from which it stole four terabytes of personal data for which it requested a ransom of 4 .6 million dollars -which the Generalitat ruled out- and which shortly after was partially published on the ‘deep’ and ‘dark’ web. EFE