Organisation

CARNET operation is realized through a series of interconnected services and projects united into seven departments:

• General and Financial Activities Department
• Network Infrastructure Department
• Computing Infrastructure and Services Department
• National CERT Department
• User Support Department
• Education Support Department
• Office of the CEO.

CARNET bodies are the Managing Council, the CEO and the Council of Users.

Managing Council represents the interests of CARNET founders, the Croatian Government. The Managing Council members are appointed by the Minister of Science and Education.

Since July 18^th , 2019 the members of the Managing Council are:

• prof. dr. sc. Drago Žagar, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Information Technology, Osijek
• prof. dr. sc. Marin Golub, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing
• prof. dr. sc. Dragutin Kermek, University of Zagreb, Faculty of organization and informatics, Varaždin
• mr. sc. Goran Kolarić, Ministry of Science and Education
• Ivica Markulin, Croatian Academic and Research Network – CARNET, representative of employees.

President of the Managing Council is prof. dr. sc. Drago Žagar, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Information Technology, Osijek.

CARNET Executive Committee coordinates short- and long-term planning, and makes decisions on business organisation and is responsible for the relations with the government bodies, users, partners and the public and its members are:

• CEO Hrvoje Puljiz
• Vice CEO Juraj Bilić

Deputy CEO:

• Aleksandra Mudrinić Ribić
• Bojan Schmidt
• Darko Parić
• Ivan Šabić
• Nataša Glavor
• Tihomir Markulin.

CEO coordinates activities at the level of the entire institution and outside it and represents CARNET in public.

Minister of Science and Education Prof. Radovan Fuchs, Ph.D. appointed Hrvoje Puljiz, as the CEO of CARNET for a period of four years. 

The Users Board includes all CARNET coordinators of CARNET member institutions, which represent users from the academic community, heads of county expert councils of Computer Science teachers, as well as representatives of educational institutions and the CEO of CARNET.

Office of the CEO is a special organizational department of CARNET that manages, coordinates, and organises the operations of the institution. The Office is managed by the CEO and Vice CEO of CARNET, while the CEO assistants coordinate and organise operations of other departments. The CEO coordinates activities at the level of the entire institution and beyond and represents CARNET in public.

Office of the CEO oversees the legality and timeliness of work and takes measures to ensure efficiency, schedules operations and gives instructions for work, takes care of orderly and proper use of the property and budget, and takes measures to determine liability for breaches of official duty.

Office of the CEO includes two additional services:

• Office for Administration and Management of EU Projects
• Office for Communications.

Office of the CEO coordinates the following activities:

• information security coordination
• leading and coordinating projects financed from EU funds
• public relations
• international cooperation
• annual user conference
• marketing activities
• event support
• special information services
• activities related to special programmes
• human resources management.

Information security coordination includes implementation and monitoring of implementation of the security programmes in CARNET. An important part of the programme is to raise awareness on the importance of computer security for all CARNET employees, associates, and external partners.

Managing and coordinating projects financed from EU funds implies involvement in international partnerships and international projects, building human and administrative capacity to participate in structural and other programmes after the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the EU and co-financing existing and new CARNET services from EU funds.

Office of the CEO coordinates CARNET’s public relations and is responsible for cooperation with the media, development and implementation of communication strategies and projects aimed at raising awareness of various publics about the work of the institution, and for ensuring the availability of information under the Right to Information Act.

Office of the CEO also coordinates CARNET’s marketing activities through visual design, production and promotion of the institution and its services.

Office of the CEO plans and organises the annual conference of all CARNET users and partners called CARNET Users Conference – CUC, as the central place for presenting the institution.

Office of the CEO also coordinates the activities of international cooperation of the institution and participates in a number of international activities. This includes monitoring the activities of other academic networks in Europe, participating in the work of international organizations that bring together national, educational, academic and research networks. Also, CARNET encourages the involvement of the Croatian academic community in international projects, in the field of research and application of information technologies and provides coordination support to the participation of CARNET employees in international projects.

Human resources management in CARNET implies a series of interrelated activities and tasks aimed at ensuring the adequate number and structure of employees, their knowledge, skills, interests, motivation and behaviour required to achieve current, developmental and strategic goals through the development of individual skills of each employee.

Activities of the Network Infrastructure Department concern the construction and maintenance of CARNET network infrastructure and the research and implementation of new network technologies.

The Network Infrastructure Department is divided into three services:

• Network Services
• Network Operations Center
• Network Infrastructure Support

Network Services are responsible for the development, maintenance and security of CARNET network, data centres, and related control and managing system. Service activities include establishing and maintaining network services in the network, connecting CARNET network to external networks (internet, GÉANT, CIX), and developing and adapting the tools for monitoring and management of network based on open source.

Network Operations Centre is responsible for active monitoring of the entire CARNET network and associated network services, troubleshooting in the network, and communication with users, telecommunication providers and other CARNET services.

Access Network Infrastructure Service is responsible for the planning and technical implementation of network connections to the locations of member institutions, as well as the logistic and administrative support to the department. The services include intensive cooperation with telecommunications service providers and the preparation and implementation of contracts related to the Network Infrastructure Department, along with allocation of public IP address space, and implementation and maintenance of active network equipment for the purposes of connecting member institutions.

Activities of the Computing Infrastructure and Services Department are related to the development and maintenance of the central computer and information CARNET systems, development of public and internal application solutions, maintenance of registers and databases, maintenance and upgrade of internal computer and information infrastructure and services, as well as computer and system support for all users and member institutions.

The department is divided into four organisational units:

• System Support Service
• Development Department
• Internet Service

System Support Service provides system maintenance services and support to CARNET public services such as:

• e-Class Register (electronic class book)
• CARNET id (management of the directory, e-mail and websites of primary and secondary schools)
• NISpVU (National Information System for Entries to Higher Education)
• NISpuSŠ (National information system for applications and enrollment in secondary schools)
• the filtering system of inappropriate web content for students
• IFIS (Integrated Financial Information System)
• internal computer systems that CARNET uses in its operations.

The service also provides hosting services for various information services of national importance for several ministries of the Republic of Croatia.

In addition to the above services, there is also a Helpdesk for system engineers (sys.help), a virtual server service for member institutions (VPU) as a replacement for the physical server distribution service, the creation and maintenance of a portal for system engineers (sys.portal), a remote security storage service data (sys.backup), a service that allows, through a simple network interface, to add an unlimited number of domains, from basic to domains of various projects in which the member participates (sys.dns), server monitoring (sys.monitor), creation and maintenance of CARNET- these Debian Linux distributions adapted to the needs of system engineers at member institutions. The service’s activities also include engagement in international projects such as GÉANT 4.

The Development Department deals with the design, development and maintenance of application solutions that are a significant component of numerous CARNET services. Among others, these are e-Dnevnik, e-Građani mToken, CARNET Public server, content management for school websites, management of the .hr domain registry, applications for internal business, etc.

In addition to the development of new ones, the service also deals with the revision of existing services, as well as support to other departments in the process of design, development and maintenance of services from their domain of activity.

Internet Service Department defines and ensures the standardization of the quality of CARNET’s key services at the technical level, the resources required for their implementation, guidelines for integration with other systems and services, standardization and monitoring of service security, and the establishment of work supervision. The main goal of the service is to establish processes and carry out activities that will ensure the integrity and quality of the technical performance of Internet services intended for end users. The service, in cooperation with other CARNET departments, develops, defines, establishes, maintains and improves key CARNET internet services, plans and provides the technical resources necessary for their implementation, provides guidelines for integration with other systems and services, and supervises and monitors the security of their functioning.

Education Support Department offers support to the educational and academic community in the use of information and communication technologies, to improve the teaching and learning processes. The activities of the department are aimed at strengthening the educational community to achieve its digital maturity, through systematic education on the methods of implementing technology and online content in teaching, with consideration of the pedagogical and methodical aspects of the application of such contents, as well as through the research and implementation of educational technologies appropriate for the Croatian educational context.

Support is provided by three services:

• E-Learning Research and Development Service
• E-Learning Support Service
• Education Technologies Service.

Within the E-Learning Research and Development Service, the Department examines the needs of the users and follows e-learning trends, and based on the conclusions, directs the development of CARNET’s education support services. It is the task of the department to promote and raise awareness about the world trends of ICT application in Croatian educational environment and cooperation with research institutions investigating the educational process and system.

The E-learning Support Service follows global e-learning trends as well as the needs of CARNET users regarding the use of digital technologies in teaching and learning. It provides users with continuous and varied training and support in these areas. Both everyday and project-related activities which the service employees are engaged in emphasize the importance of developing a digital society, particularly with regard to training educators and other stakeholders in the broader area of education. Service activities encourage users to develop their digital competences in accordance with their needs and to make effective and appropriate use of digital technologies, resources and tools in the teaching and learning process. The aim is to reach every user, regardless of their level of digital competence and preferred learning mode; hence new training methods and delivery formats are continually devised. Service employees design, develop and implement various forms of training, both guided and self-directed. These include online courses, webinars, classroom-based and virtual workshops, microlearning content, video-based learning content and the like. Service employees are involved in a range of European and national projects to which they contribute their experience and expertise. They also continue to develop their own competences in the use of digital technologies for teaching and learning. 

Education Technologies Service is engaged in the use of distance learning platforms, as well as other educational technologies and tools for developing online educational content and e-learning. Additionally, this Service focuses on monitoring trends in educational technologies, adapts the offered educational technologies to the needs of CARNET users, tests new tools, and introduces new educational technologies and tools as CARNET services. In cooperation with the other two services, the Educational Technologies Service designs and carries out user training to use the tools CARNET offers.

In addition, Education Support Department, through participation in projects funded from EU funds, aims to contribute to the exchange of experience and dissemination of knowledge in the field of ICT implementation in education and teaching in online and combined environments.

User Support Department ensures information about CARNET services, methods and terms of use and provides help in case of potential difficulties. Users of CARNET services are institutions of the academic, scientific and educational system and individuals (students, professors, pupils, etc.) and institutions of higher education, scientific and educational systems and registers of .hr domains. The Department coordinates the tasks related to the maintenance and development of national services: Register of .hr domains, e-Class Register, e-Matica and National Information System for Registration and Enrolment in Secondary Schools – NISPUSŠ.

User Support Department continuously provides support to users of CARNET through three services:

• Customer Service
• Support Centres
• Register of .hr domains

 Support Centres is a service that operates within the Customer Support Department in the following segments:

• upgrading systems that include new services
• developing system and connecting new users, i.e. member institutions to new service systems
• support and education organisation for system users
• project coordination of partners, end-users of the system and internal CARNET services and departments.

The Support Centres Service is involved in system building and service development:

• e-Class Register for online keeping of the class book
• National Information System for Entries and Enrolment in Secondary Schools (NISEESS) – centralized, unified and standardized system for entry and enrolment of high school students
• e-Matica – a centralized system of the Ministry of Science and Education that serves to enter data on students and employees of primary and secondary schools.

The service through the established communication channels ensures the flow of information to the users and between the users of services provided by the Support Centres, clearly defined procedures and availability of customer support.

Customer Service aims to improve the cooperation and quality of contacts between member institutions and CARNET and provide support to end-users of CARNET services.

Within the framework of cooperation with member institutions, Customer Service activities are:

• active monitoring of implementation and use of resources with members
• editing the mutual legal obligations of the members and CARNET
• planning the necessary infrastructure upgrades with members
• keep track of the status of CARNET resources made available to institutions
• reporting to the Ministry of Science and Education on the situation of institutions.

Support to end-users is provided by two teams: CARNET Support Team and Education System Support Team. CARNET Support Team provides basic technical support to users and provides basic notices about CARNET and its current public activities and actions and supported CARNET services.

Supported CARNET services are all publicly released and documented CARNET products for which the manager and contact information, the rights and usage information and user instructions are publicly available. The Education System Support Team provides basic technical support and basic information to users of the National Information System for Entries and Enrolment in Secondary Schools (NISEESS), e-Matica of the Ministry of Science and Education and e-Class Register.

Basic support is considered to be:

• basic notifications about the service or service itself
• instructions on how to exercise the right to use a particular service
• basic instructions on how to use the service or service the user is entitled to
• basic help in case of problems when using a service.

The basic help that the Customer Services provides to end-users in the event of a problem when using a service consists of:

• solving problems in cooperation with the user and, if necessary, with a specialist for the service or service provided by the contractor of the above-mentioned service
• referring users to the address where they can get help, in case Helpdesk cannot help in addressing issues.

Basic customer support is organized in the following ways:

• respond to user enquiries that come via one of the supported communication channels
• create and maintain documents with answers to frequently asked questions
• create and maintain web pages intended for basic customer support.

The communication channels used by the Customer Service are regular mail, fax, e-mail, phone, Skype and Facebook.

.hr domain register manages the .hr domain registration, provides support to users when registering domains, with additional requests, and arbitration procedures, coordinates tasks with the DNS commission, registrars, media, and other involved and interested parties, and suggests improvements in managing the .hr domain register.

National CERT was established in accordance with the Information Security Act of the Republic of Croatia and according to the Act CERT is a national body for prevention and protection from computer threats to the security of public information systems in the Republic of Croatia. One of its main tasks is to harmonize the treatment of security computer incidents in public information systems created in the Republic of Croatia or in other countries and organisations when connected with the Republic of Croatia.

According to the Ordinance on the Work of National CERT, the Department deals with incidents if one of the parties to the incident is in the Republic of Croatia (i.e. if it is in the .hr domain or in Croatian IP address space).

The work and organisation of National CERT should be aligned with the Information Security Act (Official Gazette 79/2007) and the requirements set forth in the Cybernetic Security Act on key services providers and digital service providers (Official Gazette 64/2018), which stipulates that the Croatian Legislation adopted Directive 2016/1148 of the European Parliament and of the Council of July 6^th, 2016 on measures for a high level of security of network and information systems throughout the Union (the so-called NIS Directive – The Directive on Security of Network and Information Systems). The action of National CERT is largely determined by the National Cyber Security Strategy and its action plan.

National CERT service users are all users of public information systems and Internet users in the Republic of Croatia, including CARNET users and providers of hosting services and Internet access services (ISP). Users of National CERT service can be all Internet users in the Republic of Croatia, i.e. resident users, business entities, institutions, Internet access providers in the Republic of Croatia and other entities other than state administration bodies that are in charge of ZSIS CERT.

National CERT is organized into four services:

• Incident Handling Service
• Infrastructure Security Service
• Security Awareness and Governance Advisory Service
• Service Development and Maintenance Service

The Incident Handling Service works to mediate the resolution and processing of incidents as the first level of resolution, support and coordination. The service also works on the processing of aggregated data and the preparation of reports, as well as on raising awareness of cyber security.

The Infrastructure Security Service is working on the introduction of new technologies from the security aspect into the CARNET information system, to increase the level of security of CARNET services, computer systems and the entire network. This service is also working on developing new security services.

The Security Awareness and Governance Advisory Service deals with the field of cyber security with an emphasis on raising awareness and education, participates in the work of relevant bodies at the national, European and international levels, proposes and participates in defining national legal regulations and prepares proposals for internal acts.

The Service Development and Maintenance Service deals with the development of services and applications that we use when processing incidents, automating certain processes and facilitating the processing of incidents with various scripts. The largest project currently being implemented is the development of a national platform for the exchange of incidents (PIXI).

National CERT is implementing proactive and reactive measures within its activities. Proactive measures work before the incident and other events that could endanger the security of public information systems to prevent or mitigate potential damage. Reactive measures have an impact on incidents in the Republic of Croatia and other events that could endanger the computer security of public information systems in the Republic of Croatia.

Proactive measures implemented by National CERT are:

• monitoring the situation in the field of computer security and publishing news from the field of Internet security
• release computer-security recommendations on detected vulnerabilities
• issue security recommendations for the most popular operating systems
• publication of technical documents and online safety brochures
• conducting vulnerability testing of public information systems and information systems of CARNET members
• disclosing information on analysis and security tool recommendations
• education of target groups in the field of Internet security
• collecting and analysing data related to the security of CARNET services
• participating in implementation of security solutions to protect and prevent CARNET services
• informing the public through the portal antibot.hr with the aim of suppressing bots
• participation in television and radio broadcasting on computer security issues
• participation in lectures in conferences and workshops
• participation in cyber defence exercises.

Reactive measures implemented by National CERT are:

• collecting and analysing data on significant incidents in the Republic of Croatia that occurred in public information systems
• collecting information on compromised computers and their online source activities and their analysis
• preparation of statistics report and state of cyber security in the Republic of Croatia
• mediation and coordination in dealing with significant incidents in the Republic of Croatia
• CARNET network Abuse service.

By reactive measures, National CERT works by addressing incidents in the Republic of Croatia that have occurred in public information systems. Incidents are resolved by analysis and mediation using tools and programs developed within National CERT such as early warning system, URL monitor IncTool, and others.

National CERT participates with other departments in the design of critical security and other CARNET services as well as the establishment of a central system for data security gathering and security event monitoring.

Business Support Department includes the joint services required for the work of all CARNET departments.

Within this department the following services are conducted:

• Legal Services
• Procurement Activities
• Finance and Accounting
• Car Fleet Services
• Warehousing Services
• Internal Technical and System Support.

Legal Services include the work of drafting and controlling the legal foundation of contracts and procedures, monitoring of regulations, providing expert assistance in the interpretation of regulations, preparation and drafting of general acts, registration and entry in court and other registers. 

Procurement activities include participation in public procurement and simple procurement procedures and drafting of public procurement contracts (goods, services and works) on the conducted procedure and performing other jobs from its scope of work (procurement planning and monitoring of implementation). 

Finance and Accounting related activities are related to budget planning and execution, budget execution control, half-year and annual budget execution reports, management of accounting records, financial statements and consolidated financial statements in accordance with financial accounting regulations, bookkeeping records, petty cash affairs, as well as calculation and payment of salaries, other income, royalties, and other work from their scope of work.

Car Fleet Services include registration and verification of vehicle documentation, vehicle tracking by application, technical validation and vehicle servicing, and other tasks within its scope of work.

Warehousing Services include the organisation of equipment reception, warehousing, storage and provision of equipment to users, with the provision of all accompanying documentation, monitoring the application of the regulations on storage operations and other regulations related to the storage, updating and maintenance in the matrix system, responsibility locations, defining groups and types of materials in the system, preparing and controlling the reverse, organizing qualitative and quantitative takeover of the equipment in accordance with the contracts, carrying out preparation for equipment list and performing other tasks within its scope of work.

Internal technical and system support takes care of personal computers, operating systems, additional equipment for the user’s work, organizes software product installation on computers, records distribution and use of computer equipment and licensed software, performs administrative and technical maintenance tasks of existing technical resources required for work employees, provides support to information system users within CARNET, proposes and sets criteria for the procurement, distribution and use of computer and software equipment and performs other activities within its scope of work.