Between 2008 and 2014, the number of cybersecurity incidents increased six-fold in Slovenia. This year, SI-CERT expects between 2,200 and 2,300 reports, said the head of the national cybersecurity centre, Gorazd Božič.

Pinpointing last year's attack via hijacked webcams, he expressed concern "about the internet of things overtaking our IT protection".

Turning to Slovenia, MP of the opposition New Slovenia (NSi) Matej Tonin reiterated that Slovenian politicians were not truly aware of the possible consequences of the issue.

"Cyberspace is becoming the space of war in the 21st century. And Slovenia is lagging behind," he was critical.

Tonin and the head of the IT directorate of the Public Administration Ministry, Jurij Bertok, believe that the public and private sectors should join forces in cybersecurity.

In addition, Tonin said that all those dealing with the matter in state and public institutions should be gathered under the same roof to increase efficiency.

Bertok noted that the state plans to establish a cybersecurity agency, into which the SI-CERT and the Government Office for the Protection of Classified Information would be folded.

Two bills are currently under consideration, a bill on cybersecurity and a bill on the protection of critical infrastructure, which Denis Čaleta of the Institute for Corporative Security Studies said was the most exposed to the risk.

Today's national conference on cybersecurity was the latest in a range of such debates after the Novo mesto-based car assembly plant Revoz, a subsidiary of Renault, was hit in the global ransomware attack in May.