On November 3, Sumgayit State University (SSU) and the Association of Cyber Security Organizations of Azerbaijan (ASCOA) jointly organized an educational event on information security and cyber security.

SSU rector Rufat Azizov, who opened the event with an introductory speech, greeted ASCOA Board Chairman Elvin Balajanov and the event participants. Continuing his speech, the rector stated that according to the statistics of the last decade, the growth in the development dynamics of cybercrime, which is increasing year by year in the whole world, including in Azerbaijan, has become the biggest problem for societies: "That"s why this direction is currently a priority area in our country. I am glad that we started cooperation with the leadership of ASCOA, which is considered the engine of the issue of cyber security in our republic, in the direction of organizing educational work on this issue between teachers and students."

Rufat Azizov expressed his hope for a successful perspective of cooperation expressed in the university"s curriculum and addressed the students about the main goal of reforms in this direction envisaged at SSU: "I know it is necessary to remind that as a result of our fruitful cooperation with ASCOA, each of you gets a chance to grow as a specialist in cyber security issues." ASCOA Board Chairman Elvin Balajanov stated that the main goal of the work started with SSU is to train personnel in this field and expressed his gratitude to the university management and Rector Rufat Azizov personally for establishing cooperation with the institution he represents. Elvin Balajanov, who noted that they will receive all kinds of organizational and informational support from ASCOA in the creation of a cyber club at SSU as the initial stage of cooperation, emphasized that the students" initiative will be useful. Evaluating the attention paid to the field of cyber security in our country and giving great importance to the work carried out in this direction as necessary steps, the Chairman of the Management Board noted that important steps are currently being taken to strengthen the personnel potential in this field: "The transformation of Azerbaijan into a modern place of innovation, the improvement of management in the field of digitization and high technologies are among the main factors determining the work done in the field of cyber security."

Deputy Chairman of ASCOA Management Board Rauf Jabbarov linked the relevance of the topic of the event with the urgency of the tasks set in the "Strategy on Information Security and Cyber Security" adopted in our country on August 28 this year. Therefore, Rauf Jabbarov said that the cooperation with SSU will cover not only engineering majors, but humanitarians as well, and called them to be active. Vusal Salmanli, founder and director of "Defscope" cyber security company, addressed the students and pointed out that the cooperation started with SSU will give them new career opportunities.

At the end of the event, a number of students" questions were answered.