The InCyber Forum in Lille provides an opportunity to take stock of the cybersecurity ecosystem in Wallonia.
From April 1 to 3, companies active in the field of cybersecurity gathered in Lille for the InCyber Forum. Europe's largest cybersecurity event featured 103 countries, 700 exhibitors and 20,000 participants.
In this cybersecurity landscape, Wallonia was present, with the Agence du Numérique, Idelux Développement, representatives from Belgium's French-speaking universities, research centers and five Walloon companies taking part. It was an opportunity to draw up a portrait of the Walloon cybersecurity ecosystem. Wallonia is also home to several world leaders in the field, who have chosen our country to set up and expand in Europe: IBM Security, Microsoft, PaloAlto, Cisco, Fortinet, Thales and Mastercard Cybersecurity.
"In terms of pure-players, Wallonia's cybersecurity ecosystem numbers around twenty companies. But if we count companies that do cybersecurity in addition to other subjects, we have around 70 companies present in Wallonia. Given the size of our region, that's a respectable figure", explains Nina Hasratyan, Cybersecurity expert for the Agence du Numérique and co-coordinator of the Cyberwal by Digital Wallonia cybersecurity program.
The Cyberwal by Digital Wallonia program
The Cyberwal by Digital Wallonia program is dedicated to implementing actions aimed at developing an integrated “cybersecurity” value chain in Wallonia. The program is based on 4 complementary development pillars.
"The first pillar is awareness, mobilization and tooling. We set up awareness campaigns. We organize informative and educational events on specific themes. We also create specific tools that people in our ecosystem can use for their cybersecurity journey," develops Nina Hasratyan.
"The second pillar concerns training and skills. All over the world, there's a shortage of cybersecurity talent. So that's a gap we're trying to address at every level. The third pillar is research and innovation. This third pillar is represented by another entity, IIS CyberWal. The fourth pillar concerns extra-regional outreach. It's about promoting Wallonia to other regions in Belgium and internationally," adds Nina Hasratyan.
For Cyberwal by Digital Wallonia, 4 sectors are priorities when it comes to cyber security: industry 4.0, the public sector, healthcare and education.
An evolving ecosystem
"Internationally, we have a number of excellent companies with international operations. These are companies with ambition and rapid growth," emphasizes Nina Hasratyan. "Our ecosystem is still evolving. We'd like to see more companies developing cybersecurity solutions, whereas at the moment, many specialize in services", she adds.
A view shared by Walloon companies. "In Wallonia, we do extraordinary things. But we don't publicize our know-how enough. We're too discreet compared to the big competitors," comments Daniel Etienne, CEO of ESIA.
"We can see that the ecosystem is growing, and that's a good thing. We see new service providers and new solutions emerging. There are also more and more requests from our customers for help with cybersecurity," adds Jeremy Agenais, Sales Director at Approach Cyber.
Walloon companies present at the InCyber Forum
Approach Cyber is a pure-player in cybersecurity and data protection, dedicated to offering cyber serenity to organizations. "We cover the whole range of cybersecurity. To put it very simply, we have the technical part, but we also have the more business-oriented part with governance, risk and compliance. Here, we have two paths. Either the information and security part. Or privacy. These are the two business-oriented areas we cover. And on the technical side, we have a development team that is well known in Belgium for helping to develop the Itsme solution. And we also have a defensive and offensive team whose aim is to protect our customers' environment", explains Jeremy Agenais, Sales Director.
Based in Louvain-la-Neuve, Approach Cyber also has offices in Brussels, Antwerp and Lausanne in Switzerland. "Our aim is to become a European leader in cybersecurity. That's our medium-term goal," adds Jeremy Agenais.
Founded in 2011, ESIA is a Walloon company based in Liège. It has developed a range of sovereign (made in EU) supervision and cybersecurity solutions to meet the needs of SMEs and major accounts. "We currently have 6 companies in our core business in Europe. Today, this represents 275 million tests carried out per minute. Our ultimate goal is business continuity. In essence, this means ensuring that production tools don't grind to a halt. Our partners include Luminus, as well as hospitals", explains Daniel Etienne, CEO of ESIA.
To better understand ESIA's work, Daniel Etienne draws a comparison with the medical world. "In essence, it's like paying someone to continuously tap on your shoulder and ask if you're okay. We take a series of parameters just as a doctor takes blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen levels. All the information is put into dashboards so that the right decision can be made at the right time. Our role is to detect any deterioration in service levels in order to avoid breakdowns," explains Daniel Etienne.
ESIA's added value? "As ESIA is at the origin of each of these developments, it is in a position to guarantee total sovereignty of the code it makes available to its partners. With cybersecurity solutions at the heart of information systems, and in the current geopolitical context, European companies can no longer afford to ignore the sovereignty aspect of the software they use", concludes Daniel Etienne.
Nexova provides cyber-range and emulation solutions, managed cybersecurity services, cybersecurity consulting and training. Based in Transinne (Belgium), our Cybersecurity Center of Excellence is a highly secure facility unique in Europe, designed to meet the security needs of Europe's critical infrastructures.
OZOOS is a company dedicated to cybersecurity. "We have developed a solution that complements traditional security products. Based on AI, robotization and community, VEEZO analyzes incoming and outgoing flows, immediately drops malicious payloads and gives you a window into the unknown!"
REDSYSTEM is a specialist offensive cybersecurity company, dedicated to proactively analyzing your organization against cyber threats.
Research and innovation
The CyberWal Strategic Innovation Initiative is driving the development of cybersecurity in Wallonia by bringing together 130 researchers, companies and public players. Its aim is to strengthen regional expertise and make Wallonia a center of excellence in research and innovation.
Through CyberExcellence, its program structuring cybersecurity research in French-speaking Belgium, CyberWal pilots projects of national and European scope.
Training tomorrow's talent is also a priority for IIS CyberWal: every winter, a cybersecurity school brings together over 200 participants. To support them, CyberWal has contributed to the creation of two demonstrators at the Galaxia site in Transinne, near the European Space Agency. They offer a state-of-the-art Cyber Range and a quantum telecoms laboratory, accessible free of charge to researchers.
"Our aim is to ensure that talent is hired in Belgium. We pay a lot of money to train cybersecurity experts through theses and PhDs. These profiles sometimes end up working abroad. We're trying to combat this talent drain by getting them to work directly with Walloon companies," points out Samuël Jude, manager of IIS CyberWal.
By connecting academia, industry and institutions, IIS CyberWal stimulates innovation and positions Wallonia as a key player in cybersecurity on an international scale.
Isabelle Anneet (AWEX)
