Foreword Dear readers, and economic development, and to deploy the limited numbers of cybersecurity staff available as effectively Digital technology has now established itself in every as possible in the long run. area of our lives. We shop online, we communicate using smartphones, and we carry out our banking transactions The Austrian Strategy for Cybersecurity 2021 – referred to over the Internet. Systems for distributing goods are run as “the Strategy” or by its German acronym “ÖSCS 2021”, via the cloud, our water and electricity networks are is designed to guide our efforts to meet cybersecurity controlled electronically, and our hospitals have been challenges as effectively as possible. It serves to reliant on computers for a long time now. implement a major pillar of the current government’s policy in this area also laying the groundwork for a All these developments come with enormous potential, systemic approach to cooperation between government but they entail risks, and we need to take these risks agencies, research institutions and businesses. seriously. With this in mind, cybersecurity is becoming increasingly important in our efforts to keep cyberspace What is more, the ÖSCS 2021 also forms part of the safe and secure. EU’s “European Cybersecurity Strategy for the Digital Decade”. In this way, Austria does not only make a Cyberattacks are neither limited to individual sectors significant contribution to its’s cybersecurity, but it also of the economy nor do they stop at national borders. works towards a global, open and safe cyberspace. The To ensure society is as resilient as possible in the face Austrian Strategy for Cybersecurity 2021 will create the of cyber threats, we need to work together even more conditions needed to exploit the opportunities of the closely at both the domestic and the international levels, digital world as effectively as possible over the coming intensifying existing dialogues and exchanging even years and decades and, above all, ensure that digital more data. It is only by working together that we will be services are secure and safe for us all to use. able to react to the constant change of the digital realm and adapt to the challenges it poses, to exploit digital Karl Nehammer technology’s potential to boost our research institutions Federal Chancellor