National good practice initiative

PTSOC – the .PT Security Operations Centre was created in 2019 within the DNS.PT Association with the  primary objective of strengthening the Portuguese ccTLD’s capabilities to detect, respond to, and prevent  security incidents and cyber threats, while simultaneously increasing levels of cooperation within the domain name management ecosystem and promoting digital skills, in particular cybersecurity best practices and the adoption of secure protocol standards.

About the DNS.PT Association

The DNS.PT Association is a private non-profit association responsible for managing domain names under the .pt ccTLD. Its mission is to ensure stable and reliable domain management, focusing on technological innovation that meets the needs of the national community and respecting privacy and data protection laws.

The DNS.PT Association has been working closely with the Portuguese authorities, registrars and the user community to promote a safer and more reliable cyberspace under the .pt domain. To this end, a catalogue has been developed with tailor-made and free services based on collaboration and institutional dialogue, with the aim of strengthening cybersecurity skills and good practices in online presence and communications.

This allows citizens, professionals, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to benefit from training and awareness-raising in cybersecurity areas, technical support in implementing security standards (such as DNSSEC), cybersecurity content such as that provided in PTSOC News, and cooperation in detecting and responding to security incidents.

Why is PTSOC a good practice?

The commitment to strengthen the Portuguese  was reinforced in 2023, with the close collaboration of several national reference players, particularly INCoDe.2030, Rampa Digital, National Police (PSP), CISCO, and NAU, enabling a range of significant achievements, including:

• Successful organisation of 16 cybersecurity workshops – particularly in regions marked by regional asymmetries – an action that reached over 600 people throughout Portugal, and simultaneously takes into account disadvantaged and vulnerable communities in line with the objectives under the Skills Agenda for Europe and also the Digital Decade targets of the European Commission by 2030.
• Building a collaborative environment of like-minded stakeholders and partners via sharing of cybersecurity awareness materials with a network of contacts and partners, through the website and social networks, and via highlighting PTSOC’s news – a quarterly magazine created to inform, enlighten and educate through news, analysis, opinion articles, documents and relevant indicators in the area of cybersecurity.
• Development and promotion of free massive open online courses (MOOCs) – on the topics of “Cybersecurity Risk Management for Organisations” and “Business Continuity Management” – with over 5000 people throughout Portugal participating.

Fostering skills-building and security through PTSOC

By providing training opportunities designed specifically for cybersecurity professionals, PTSOC is instrumental in bridging the skills gap identified in the Portuguese labour market.

Established collaborative networks between universities and private organisations has already started to lay down the foundations of a strong national talent pool. Internships, workshops and certification programs developed in this context have helped to improve the skills landscape in Portugal to a massive extent. PTSOC is working on more and more of those as part of their commitment to promoting cybersecurity skills, and leaving no one behind.