FIC 2023: In Cloud We Trust

Army General Marc Watin-Augouard (Photo © FIC)

On 5 to 7 April, the International Cybersecurity Forum brought together the European public and private cybersecurity ecosystem in Lille, on European digital security issues. The Luxembourg Pavilion including twenty organisations were present.

The 2023 edition of the International Cybersecurity Forum (FIC) took place on 5, 6 and 7 April in Lille (France). The theme (“In Cloud we trust?”) focused on digital transformation, public cloud computing, and on cloud related security, trust and sovereignty issues.

The event brought together 650 exhibitors and speakers and 16,000 participants from 60 countries – end customers, solution and service providers, consultants, law enforcement, government agencies, schools and universities, regional and national pavilions – around conferences, round tables, technical and hacking demonstrations.

Some of the main discussions focused on the operational challenges of cybersecurity and on how to build a digital future in line with European values and interests in a context of international and economic tensions.

The Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce in close cooperation with the Ministry of the Economy and the Luxembourg House of Cybersecurity organised the Luxembourg pavilion. More than 20 organisations from the Luxembourg cyber and digital ecosystem including three startups were also present in Lille to present their solutions, network and develop business opportunities.

Matchmaking

The delegation met with other startups and organisations as well as with foreign delegations and agencies, among others from Belgium, Switzerland, Quebec, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Germany, Spain, Finland and Estonia. Some potential trans-national projects and collaborations have been raised and discussed.

This year, Luxinnovation also organised a Luxembourg Cybersecurity & Defence Industry Delegation.

81 startups from 12 different countries applied to the FIC startup prize: The ANOZR WAY, a software platform that enables comprehensive management of human vulnerabilities, received the FIC 2023 Startup Award. Dust Mobile, a cyber defence operator, received the Jury Prize.

Both Astran, a publisher of a Zero Trust cloud storage solution, and Filigran, a developer of a cyber threat analysis solution and of a tool for crisis exercises and computer attack simulations, won the Jury’s Favourite Prize. OneKey, which operates autonomously scans firmware for critical security vulnerabilities and compliance violations, received the OT Award.

Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Internal Market (Photo © FIC 2023)

Time for resilience

“Whether they are economic, political, commercial or military, attacks are always aimed at destabilising our systems,” said Thierry Breton the European Commissioner for Internal Market, during the official opening of FIC 2023. “The time has come for the resilience of the digital internal market. Amid the threat that does not weaken and spares no one, Europe is strengthening its technological, legislative and operational arsenal. It is organising itself and gradually setting up a European cyber shield to protect, detect, defend and deter.”

While cloud computing plays a key role in the digital and industrial transformation of citizens, businesses and countries, more than 80% of European data is stored and processed outside the continent by US hyperscalers.

“With the development of cloud computing, organisations can no longer trust their suppliers ‘by default’. They need commitments and tangible evidence, both technically and legally,” said Marc Watin-Augouard, founder of the FIC and Army General.

“This dependence on a few key suppliers, the lock-in effect sometimes generated by contracts, can also weaken organisations, and ultimately disrupt traditional value chains. Trust is also undermined by the proliferation of legislation with extraterritorial scope, especially in a tense geopolitical context, with the risk of taking this data hostage”.

Towards a European revolution?

Guillaume Tissier, Director of FIC Europe, added that the localisation of our data on European soil is not enough: “It is still necessary for the most sensitive data to be hosted in clouds totally immune to the application of extraterritorial legislation, including the US FISA,” he said. “Hence the importance of the future European Cloud Certification Scheme (EUCS), currently under discussion within the European Union, and the successor to the Privacy Shield, the Data Privacy Framework, under negotiation between Europe and the States”.

Amid these challenges, can Europe make its revolution? Pascal Steichen prefers to speak instead of ‘evolution’. “There is certainly a need to evolve, to strengthen the European Union and its cyber expertise in an intrinsic way,” explained the CEO of Luxembourg House of Cybersecurity.

Indeed, European alternatives to those of American hyperscalers exist: “The many companies and actors present at the FIC, the ideas, solutions and practices presented at the show demonstrate the European dynamic in terms of cybersecurity,” he detailed. “However, we must be able to make all this visible to companies looking for specific cybersecurity solutions that can meet their real needs.”

The Luxembourg Delegation in Lille

The International Cybersecurity Forum (FIC) is the reference event in Europe dedicated to digital security and trust in Europe and worldwide. Since 2013 the event is jointly organised by the National Gendarmerie and CEIS (Avisa Partners group) with the support of the Hauts-de-France region, hosts the digital security ecosystem and trusted digital.

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