GJØVIK (VG) The new Greek government has a minister who lives in Brumunddal. But Sokratis Katsikas (63) believes his government career is over before the summer holidays.

New digitization minister Katsikas told VG that he doesn’t really have time to be both a minister and an ICT professor at NTNU University in Gjøvik.

– The date came as a surprise, and I didn’t really have time for it. But the country must have a government until Greece can hold new elections on June 25, Katsikas tells VG.

He has already participated in conferences on digital government. This week, the Minister for Digitization is due to travel to Athens to meet the rest of the government.

– Some subjects are so sensitive that you have to meet physically, he says.

ICT expert

The Greek-born professor and digitization minister lives in Norway and has been associated with NTNU in Gjøvik since 2015. He now lives in Brumunddal.

In 2020, he was appointed director of NORSICS, the Norwegian Center for Cybersecurity in Critical Sectors, where NTNU has set itself the goal of making Norway the safest digitized country in the world.

The internationally renowned professor was at a seminar in Gothenburg two weeks ago when he received the request from the Greek Prime Minister’s office.

After the election a few days earlier, his country needed a transitional government:

– In the Greek parliamentary elections on May 25, none of the three main parties won a majority. The ruling New Democracy party won just over 40% of the vote. Unfortunately, in Greece we don’t have a tradition of coalition governments. The government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis resigned, then the president appointed an interim government pending a new election, he explains.

technocratic government

The Greek government now consists of experts from various sectors of society. Acting Prime Minister Ioannis Sarmas is currently President of the Greek Supreme Court. The minister of defense is a former general and the minister of foreign affairs is a retired ambassador.

– Why did the Prime Minister want to appoint a Minister for Digitization living in Norway?

– I’m not sure, but I assume that the ministers of the outgoing government proposed names for the caretaker government, and my name came up. The system is such that all parties must approve the temporary ministers, or at least not object to the appointments. If anyone objects, another name can be found, with peace of mind, says Katsikas.

– Does this therefore suppose that you are not a member of a political party?

– My political background is well known in Greece. I was Secretary of State for Telecommunications in the government of Georgios Papandreou of the socialist party PASOK from 2009 to 2012, he explains.

Attack

The new minister has already had to deal with serious cyberattacks:

– Governments are exposed to cyberattacks on a daily basis, but this was serious because it was the system for distributing high school exams in Greece that had been down for a few hours last Monday. The next day there was another attack on the infrastructure itself, but we also managed to repel it.

– Do you know who was behind the cyberattack?

– We are still investigating and are not entirely sure. But at least one group of Russian hackers participated.