NERO at the Deeptech Cyber Conference: All the Highlights

On 11 April, the SCS cluster organised the "Deeptech Cyber Conference" at the Village by CA in Sophia Antipolis in partnership with the European project NERO. 75 participants were able to hear from cybersecurity experts to gain a better understanding of the main challenges facing the sector, learn more about structuring projects in the region and also take stock of European and French regulations!

Highlights: Keynotes, Round Table and Expertise Pitch

The day opened with a welcome from Olivier Chavrier, Director of the SCS Cluster, followed by a presentation by Celia Nowak from the French National Agency for Information Systems Security (ANSSI) on the panorama of the cyber threat in 2023. “You don't have to be a target to be a victim,” she explains. In fact, cyber-attacks are becoming more opportunistic, aimed at easy targets and automated by cyber criminals who are becoming more professional and developing their activity with a real profit motive.

Robert Breedstraet, Director of Information Security à Amadeus, then spoke about anticipating cyber crises, with a presentation of the measures put in place at Amadeus. The company has put in place security ambassadors, improved its access management, and is spreading best practices by raising awareness and providing ongoing training for employees, including tests, phishing simulations and regular local and international exercises, repeating the information is one of the keys to effective anticipation of cyber risks! 

The round table "What are the structuring initiatives in the Southern Region and who are the beneficiaries?" provided an opportunity to describe local actions in the field of cybersecurity, whether in terms of training, services to businesses or regional policies, and to gain a clearer understanding of all the existing initiatives. 

• Campus Cyber Sud Project: Totem site in Sophia Antipolis, Nice et Côte d’Azur – R. Breedstraet, Amadeus, Région Sud & F. Clergeot, CASA (Sophia-Antipolis) 
• New « Cyber Shield » : protect your SME – Région Sud 
• EDIH Move2Digital Project – N. Barbier, In Extenso Innovation & Pôle SCS 
• Cyber in Toulon – Urgence Cyber PME 

Daniele Antonioli from EURECOM then presented his work as part of the European ORSHIN project, which focuses on the development of secure embedded devices. The ORSHIN project brings together 7 European partners, companies and research centres, and aims to improve Internet-connected devices with open-source hardware and software.

Frédéric Didier of the French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA) has unveiled the new cyber maturity benchmark that companies must adopt to be able to work with the DGA, and also how to comply with it!

Finally, to round off the morning, SCS members took part in the Expertise Pitch! Participants discovered solutions developed in the region to address cyber challenges in order of the value chain, from the user to the secure chip: 

• Deep Fake: Protect your content – Cyprien Veyrat-Charvillon, KeeeX 
• Local cloud: towards a sustainable and responsible digital ecosystem – Vincent Burgevin, TAS cloud services 
• Network security and segmentation – Stanislas Verley, Cyberium 
• Code analysis and security – Nicolas Gaume, MOABI 
• Counterfeiting, backdoors, forensics: reverse engineering for hardware security – Olivier Thomas, Texplained

Followed by a networking lunch and B2B meetings!  
After this rich morning, the day was extended with an informal networking lunch and 88 B2B meetings.

The NERO project - A Key Initiative for European Cyber Awareness?

After this rich morning, the day continued with a networking lunch, during which the European NERO project, including the SCS Cluster as a partner, was presented. With a start date of December 2023 and a duration of 3 years, NERO aims to develop an advanced cybersecurity ecosystem that will deliver a cybersecurity awareness programme, train and best develop a security culture among SME employees on how to mitigate the impact of cyber threats and incorporate activities, resources and training to promote a culture of cybersecurity.

At the end of the day, a meeting session was organised between the participants, with a total of 88 individual B2B meetings.

We would like to thank all the participants and speakers who contributed to the success of the day. Many thanks also to Village By CA and our sponsors and partners, the European project NERO, Cyberium, La French Tech Côte d’Azur, Telecom Valley and Sophia Club Entreprises.

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