"Where attacks are successful, existing solutions were not used or not used correctly."

(Exclusive:) The gap between the European cybersecurity market and the USA is too big for Luigi Rebuffi. In an interview, the head of the European Cybersecurity Organisation (ECSO) therefore calls for more investment and a strategy for the transnational development of the market.

Luigi Rebuffi is passionate about building a European cyber security ecosystem. He is Secretary General of the European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO). The ECSO was founded in 2016 and is a non-profit organisation under Belgian law. It is self-financing and was originally seen as "the contractual counterpart to the European Commission in the implementation of the contractual public-private partnership for cyber security (cPPP)". This was from the perspective of "supporting all types of initiatives or projects aimed at developing, promoting and supporting European cybersecurity". Members include companies, research centres and associations as well as national administrative bodies of the EU member states. Rebuffi has long campaigned for the EU Commission to provide more and targeted funding for cyber security projects. "Even Israel invests more in this area than the EU," said the Secretary General in an earlier interview with it-sa.

What are the aims and tasks of ECSO?

Our aim is to promote the development of the cybersecurity market and cooperation between the public and private sectors. We do not think in terms of national borders, but across the EU. It's about broadening our perspective, moving away from the specific markets of individual countries and towards a common EU digital single market. Many countries are still far too focussed on their own internal market; we want to be as European as possible. We are working together with the countries, because they will have to implement it afterwards.

Of course, all of this costs money. We therefore receive fees from our members and receive individual grants in connection with EU projects. We also receive income from sponsoring events.

ECSO has now produced a market study on this, what is behind it, what was the reason for it?

This is a project for the European Commission, but it has not yet been released to the public. But our report is due to be published at the end of the year. For now, we can therefore only mention individual results. The reason for this was that there are many market studies that can be acquired with different scopes and approaches and it is difficult to get a comprehensive overview. We have therefore analysed various market studies such as those by Gartner, Statista etc. and compared them. However, there are always differences between the studies, as they usually do not have the same focus, ask different questions or have different approaches. We have tried to make these figures consistent and to combine the different approaches. This enabled us to find out where there are differences and where there are similarities. We analysed around 20 different studies in this way. If you compare them accordingly, the differences are no longer that great.

How do you think the cybersecurity market in the EU will develop over the next 12 months?

It will continue to grow, we expect growth of 8 to 10 percent. However, this can be influenced by various factors, such as the implementation of NIS2. Cyber attacks and further overall economic development also play a role. The latter in particular influences investment capabilities.

Which segment of this market will grow and which will shrink?

There are two areas in the EU that are rather small: cloud security and privacy. They are growing rapidly, but at a low level. There will also be some streamlining, for example in the start-up scene. However, this is all still within the normal range.

What is the state of the cyber security market in Germany? Where is Germany better and where is it worse?

The German market is the second largest. The UK has the largest market, with France in third place. The German market is very open to suppliers from abroad, which is a special feature.

How does the market need to change in the face of new challenges, such as cyber threats from Russia? Do we need new products or services?

We are currently seeing a lot of state-driven attacks, particularly in the European border countries in the south and east. Denial-of-service attacks are a big issue in this context, but they can be dealt with. However, it costs money and is annoying.

As far as new products are concerned, all means and options to counter the current threats are actually available on the market. Where attacks are successful, the existing solutions have not been used or have not been used correctly. There is still a lot of room for improvement. Threat intelligence can also be very helpful, as attacks are constantly evolving and developments on the defence side must keep pace. Artificial intelligence will also become very important in the future.

What challenges do you see facing us in the future, where should the priorities lie?

European autonomy is important, for example when it comes to digital skills and skilled labour. The gap to the USA is still too big. We need to invest more, and in the right direction, to avoid market fragmentation. We need a European "Cyber Industrial Policy", a strategy on how we can harmonise markets. This includes both the private sector and the public sector. Unfortunately, individual countries have very different ideas and their own interests. This leads to a fragmented market.

This autonomy also includes supply chains that we can trust. We must be able to trust our IT systems. This increases our resilience and also our competitiveness.

Interview: Uwe Sievers.