Elnur Aliyev: Public-private partnerships may form new era in cybersecurity

Ensuring continuous cybersecurity requires the active participation of not only government agencies but also the private sector, Azerbaijan's First Deputy Minister of Economy Elnur Aliyev said at a conference held as part of the Critical Infrastructure Defense Competition (CIDC-2025).

Report quotes him as saying developing this sector is crucial for developing digital solutions, strengthening human resources, and preventing brain drain: "To support the development of the private sector, we should consider opportunities for cooperation within the public-private partnership model. We must expand the private sector's participation in ensuring the country's cybersecurity, enhancing national resilience, exporting knowledge and technological solutions, and developing intellectual property in the non-oil sector."

Aliyev noted that to truly assess the level of cybersecurity in the country and the development of the private sector in this area, it is necessary to identify metrics that can be monitored: "These include not only the number of registered incidents and prevented attacks, but also the number of patents received, the volume of intellectual property exported, and the scale of applied standards. We must accurately determine the private sector's contribution to these metrics."