(c) BMI/Jürgen Makowecz
On September 15, 2025, on the occasion of “Critical Infrastructure Day,” Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, Vice President of the Competence Center for Secure Austria (KSÖ), Helmut Leopold, and the Director of the Directorate for State Protection and Intelligence (DSN), Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, and CEO of Erste Bank and KSÖ board member Gerda Holzinger-Burgstaller met with operators of critical infrastructure facilities at the Erste Campus. The focus of this meeting was the exchange between representatives of authorities, science, and industry on the protection of critical infrastructure.
“It's about protecting important institutions that ensure orderly coexistence and keep the population safe,” said the interior minister. “The more complex the issues are, the more important it is to have regular communication between all parties involved.”
There are many areas that can be affected by such scenarios—for example, secure supply chains, reliability checks, bomb threats, or the increasingly important topic of artificial intelligence. This makes it all the more important to protect facilities that ensure the safety of the population, said Karner.
"We are preparing for a quantum future. Austria is ideally positioned for this. Internationally, our country is not only known for our Alps and Wiener schnitzel, but also for Nobel Prize-winning quantum research. That is why we are focusing on Austrian research and, building on this, on quantum technology developed in Austria that will protect our infrastructure from future criminal activity and hacker attacks. Last week, we conducted the first test runs – with the encouraging result that our infrastructure can be successfully secured with quantum technology. This is literally a quantum leap for the future of our cyber security," emphasized Gerda Holzinger-Burgstaller, CEO of Erste Bank and member of the KSÖ Executive Board.
Helmut Leopold, Vice President of KSÖ, said of the event: “As a networking platform, our goal is to bring together a wide variety of stakeholders. Networking and regular exchange are crucial factors for the comprehensive protection of critical infrastructures in Austria. Together, we are creating the conditions for a secure future.”
Source: Press release issued by the Federal Ministry of the Interior on September 15, 2025
Links to media articles:
- https://on.orf.at/video/14291856/pressegespraech-tag-der-kritischen-infrastruktur
- https://www.derstandard.at/story/3000000287788/innenminister-karner-warnt-vor-angriffen-auf-kritische-infrastruktur
- https://www.puls24.at/video/treffpunkt-oesterreich/treffpunkt-oesterreich-vom-15092025/vx86i4mtkzd88
- https://www.oe24.at/video/politik/gerhard-karner-zum-tag-der-kritischen-infrastruktur/648702202
Read the full german article here.