- May 16, 2022
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PwC Cybersecurity & Privacy Days 2021
This year, the PwC Luxembourg Cybersecurity and Privacy Days focused on the theme of chaos. Topics covered at the event included business alignment, third party risk, complexity versus simplification, automation, data protection and data sovereignty.
(photo: Koen Maris, Advisory Partner and Cyber Security
Leader, PwC Luxembourg, and Fabian Eberle, co-Founder & COO, Keyless)
That's a wrap. Another successful edition of PwC’s
Cybersecurity and Privacy Days ended on Thursday October 28, 2021, with the
announcement of the winner of this year’s pitching competition: Keyless
Technologies. The annual event, which
this year was a return-to-form with live events as well as digital, had over
400 attendees and was brimming with
great speakers that shared their expertise on cybersecurity and privacy
matters.
The annual event, which once again was part of the
Cybersecurity Week Luxembourg, took place across four days. It was great to see
live events occurring again, including a workshop—“ Living a cybersecurity
incident through the use of Virtual Reality technology”— that simulated a real
cybersecurity crisis situation. A new, popular (and very practical addition)
was the dedicated stand in conjunction with Streff where people could shred
their old hard disk drive or mobile phone securely and safely. Those who did so
went back home with what was left as a souvenir (see attached photo) and a very
deep understanding of how corporate data should be destroyed.
There were distinguished speakers from all over the world,
representing a rich panel of thought leaders, such as Tine A. Larsen, Christina Lekati, Paul Oor,
Mirko Ross, Andrea Garcia Beltran, Philip Zimmermann and Paul de Hert. They
shared the stage with companies that engaged in a pitch competition and
presented how their innovative solutions meet cybersecurity or privacy
challenges.
Participants also had the opportunity to participate in
business matchmaking, join interactive breakout sessions and take part in a
networking forum with their peers and industry leaders.
After a completely virtual edition 2020, we were very happy
to host a hybrid event this year and be able to again welcome the majority of
the attendees at Crystal Park.
Koen Maris, Advisory Partner and Cyber Security Leader PwC
Luxembourg, said: “At the close of 2021’s PwC Cybersecurity and Privacy Days, I
wish to extend a huge thank you to all of the participants including the
speakers and the finalists in this pitching competition— Keyless our winner— as
well as Cymptom, Decentriq, Hoxhunt and Nymiz for taking up the challenge.
Also, for everyone who attended live or digitally, thank you for your
participation. I truly hope to see you next year at Crystal Park. We really
covered a good variety of topics in order to provide food for thought for the
CISOs of the local market. The theme this year was a relevant one - focussing
on chaos and changing times. We are
living in a world of constant change, and COVID has been a further catalyst,
especially concerning data. There is a duality that we are all up against—that
of the rising demand for digital information, which has become the lifeblood of
the interconnected business ecosystem— and the rising need for companies to
guard this increasingly valuable asset
from skilled threat actors. How businesses can navigate through this chaotic
situation was at the very heart of this year's PwC Cybersecurity & Privacy
Days 2021. We look forward to continuing this discussion and we hope to see you
on one of our community calls and/or at next year's event.”
Highlights from the keynotes
Tine Larsen, Chair of CNPD (Commission nationale pour la
protection des données), Consultant, “The CNPD takes a stand!”: “We are at war,
we are in chaos and we need someone to look after it.”
Harm van den Brink, Innovation & Cyber security
specialist, ElaadNL, “The need for cybersecurity in the electric mobility
infrastructure”: “Nobody questions the need for cybersecurity in the industrial
control automation systems as for power plants for example, but for charging
stations, nobody really thinks about it yet. The amount of connected devices is
increasing, thus cybersecurity should be a necessity. Cybersecurity by design,
will mitigate risks in the long run.”
Christina Lekati, Social Engineering Trainer &
Consultant, Cyber Risk GmbH, “Information security is up against weaponised
psychology”: “Cybersecurity is not only a technical challenge, it is also a
behavioral one. As long as managers and employees can provide access to systems
and high-value information, they become targets and cybersecurity depends on
them too.”
Paul Oor, Security and Data Protection Consultant, “CISO and
DPO; noblesse oblige; adapt and join forces with the Business!”: “How to bring
stability in the chaos? Observe, orientate, detect and act. You should not only
create or empower a security department, but include security and data
protection within all other departments of your company. Make security the DNA
of your company.”
Andrea García Beltrán, UK & International Head of Cyber,
RSA Insurance Ltd, “Supply chain in the context of the provision of cyber insurance
cover”: “There is an urgent need for supply chain third-party risk for robust
security and resilience.”
Mirko Ross, CEO & Founder, asvin, “Cybersecurity in the
software supply chain - The adventure is just beginning”: “There is a
misconception in the cybersecurity industry -
and a lot of vendors and your partners that support you with
cybersecurity toolings are as well trapped in this - that everything is the best and optimised,
but overall, they are trapped in the same complexity of their products.”
Philip Zimmermann, Distinguished Engineer, Advanced
Encryption Technology Europe B.V., “Why autocracies and encryption backdoors
are dangerous”: “The context has changed, look around you now: liberal
democracies are now collapsing everywhere into populist autocracies (...) and
if autocraties inherit a surveillance infrastructure full of backdoors, they
will be able to effectively suppress political opposition.”
Paul de Hert, Full professor Vrije Universiteit Brussels
& Associated Professor Tilburg University, “Why governments are not smart
enough to develop smart cities”: “Is there a framework for technology? What
about for smart? The basic human rights questions remain more than valid.”
Cybersecurity & Privacy Solution of the Year 2021
Award, the winner is… Keyless Technologies
Keyless Technologies won the Cybersecurity & Privacy
Solution of the Year 2021 Award. Keyless is pioneering privacy-first, biometric
security solutions that enable companies to deploy seamless biometric
authentication without compromising on user experience, compliance or
security. It’s privacy-first
authentication and identity management solutions serve the full spectrum of
workforce and consumer authentication use cases. Currently, Keyless has two
products for commercial use, the Keyless Authenticator™, and the Keyless SDK™.
The jury was composed of Roman Borisovich, Executive
Director of Sardina Systems S.à.r.l, Krystina Gray, Vice-president of Women
Cyber Force and Women4Cyber Luxembourg Chapter,
and Steffen Minkmar, Head of IT Security at the European Investment
Bank.
A simulation of chaos: how well are you and your business
secured against a cyber-attack?
Picture this: you and your company are being attacked. From
one second to another, every control that you had over your company, your
processes, your data, as well as your client’s data, is gone. Months of work is
lost and irretrievable. In the aftermath of the incident, you not only lose a
lot of money to reinstall your daily business processes, you also risk losing
your clients’ trust, your reputation and your company’s credibility.
Now, how would you react during such a cyber-attack? And
would your leadership team, including the CEO, CFO and CISO, share the same
opinion on how to fight the threat? Would everyone be aware of the so-called
“Golden rules of cyber security”?
In a workshop using Virtual Reality technology, we offered
the participants the opportunity to live through the simulation of such an
incident to underline the importance of installing security protocols. This
valuable training represented another highlight of this year’s Cybersecurity
and Privacy Days and was well received by the participants.
Press release by PwC