Are the absent always wrong? The aisles of the International Cybersecurity Forum (FIC), which has been taking place since Wednesday April 5 in Lille, were crowded. But as announced, the state services have largely shunned the event, one of the flagship cybersecurity fairs in France. An edition placed under the sign of trust… but in the cloud.
In recent weeks, amid suspicions about the real activities of Avisa Partners, the co-organizer of the event, defections from the administration have turned to the soap opera. First of all with the withdrawal of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, which had indicated that it did not want to rent a stand. The soldiers were then followed by Anssi and the services of the Ministry of the Interior, including the National Gendarmerie, yet the other organizer of this event which it had launched in 2007.
OK it’s shredded for DGSE pens, but there’s some level on the beer side #FIC2023 pic.twitter.com/A4xLTVnC4E
— Amaelle Guiton ? (@amaelle_g) April 5, 2023
Collective work
If the state services have hardly rented a stand, they have not completely dried up the event, which attracted 19,500 people when it opened on Wednesday.
Vincent Strubel, the boss of Anssi, thus made an intervention in a plenary conference, this Thursday, April 6. The head of the French cyberfirefighter cautiously avoided the angry subject, in particular by pointing out the importance of collective work “so that France remains a great cyber nation”.
“We need you, the ecosystem more than ever”, added Vincent Strubel, before insisting on the priority subject at the moment at Anssi: the development of a “ready-to-use” service offer. -porter” next to the haute couture already practiced. Jean-Noël Barrot, the Minister Delegate in charge of the Digital Transition and Telecommunications, also made a recorded video intervention.
“It sucks”
But behind these headliners of the French administration, it is almost the desert. For example, the intervention of Comcyber’s boss, General Aymeric Bonnemaison, was finally cancelled. “It sucks,” laments a French figure in cybersecurity. “There may be disputes between the DGSE and Avisa Partners, but it must be said. There, it’s more a series of non-decisions. »
The strong presence of representatives of the State, from the cyberfireman to the gendarmes, through the police and the armies, was however so far one of the assets of the event. This made it possible to hear public expertise that is sometimes difficult to access. The show could thus boast of being an embodiment of the much-vaunted public-private partnership in cybersecurity.
Not total public slaughter
However, the carnage was not total. Representatives of Anssi and Viginum, two SGDSN services that depend on Matignon, spoke during the conference on incident response and digital investigation, an event associated with the FIC. And the National Directorate of Intelligence and Customs Investigations, which depends on Bercy, had also maintained its stand, a presence to be used to attract future recruits.
Finally, we could cross the paths of agents from Anssi or the armies, who had come to attend the event, but in smaller numbers than usual. “It’s a big disappointment, it raises the question of our participation next year”, regrets this representative of a cybersecurity company, which nevertheless intended to offer its solutions to the administrations.
“We learned of the withdrawal of state services late, a few weeks before the show, without being able to look back,” he adds. On the contrary, for this other French expert in the sector, the days were busy and fruitful. “It hasn’t changed our plans, but the show is losing one of its specificities”, summarizes a third exhibitor.