The digital revolution in recent decades has redefined all areas of people’s lives, Péter Szijjártó told the Parliamentary-Intelligence Security-Forum, an event established by former US Congressman Robert Pittinger in 2014.

Data has become the most important resource, almost as important as the steam engine was when it was invented in the 18th century or hydrocarbons discovered in the 20th century, Szijjártó said, noting a six-fold jump in the number of broadband mobile subscriptions from 820 million to 5.2 billion over the past ten years.

“At the same time, the number of cyber-attacks has increased with hackers posing a serious threat to private and corporate users and state organisations as well,” he said.

Szijjártó said cybercrimes have so far cost the global corporate sector 6,000 billion dollars this year alone and are estimated by experts to cost over 10,000 billion in 2025.

Hungary’s national security strategy “places great emphasis on this type of threat,” Szijjártó said, noting that the European Union and NATO will soon adopt a new cyber security strategy.