Cybersecurity conference opens in the shadow of Russia-Ukraine conflict

European experts in the field of information security are meeting this week in the northern French city of Lille at the International Cybersecurity Forum, in a context of global tension provoked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

More than 13,000 specialists are expected to take part in the three-day conference which opens on Tuesday. The forum will focus on the latest threats to the security of computerised information and the most efficient ways of defeating so-called cybercriminals.

General Didier Tisseyre, who heads the national defence forces' cyber unit, will represent French military interests at the forum. He is to take part in a round table discussion on the role of the European Union in protecting computer-based data.

The European Commissioner Margarethe Vestager, and Olli Ruutu, assistant director general of the European Defence Agency, will also take part.

Under the six-month French presidency of the European Union, due to end this month, the 27-nation bloc has agreed the political terms of a revision of security norms for major infrastructures.

Debates are already underway at EU level on the security of connected objects, on a European standard for such security, and on the admissability of electronic evidence in criminal cases.

Three French start-ups take centre stage

The Lille forum will also honour three French start-ups for their work in the sector.

They are StrongNetwork, which has developed a secure working environment for computer coders, Mindflow, working to automate system responses to cyber incidents, and Erium/BlackNoise, which generates simulated attacks to test system security.

While the war in Ukraine has led to a heightened global level of vigilance, most experts agree that the conflict has, for the moment, been limited at the cyber level.

"Russian efforts have been concentrated on systems inside Ukraine," according to Guillaume Poupard, director general of the French National Agency for Computer System Security (ANSSI).

The Ukrainians have broadly defeated Russian cyberattacks, Poupard adds, suggesting that this gives grounds for broader optimism.

The worst incident so far has been that provoked by fallout from the Russian destruction of the KA-Sat satellite system.