FleishmanHillard Cybersecurity Roundtable Summary

by
Agata Pavia

On Thursday 5 October, FleishmanHillard held a roundtable entitled “Commission’s 2017 Cybersecurity Strategy: How will it impact your business?”. The event brought together over 40 industry representatives to engage in a lively discussion with Gemma Carolillo, Policy Officer in the Unit on Cybersecurity and Digital Privacy, DG Connect and Luigi Rebuffi, Secretary General of the European Cyber Security Organisation. Following lunch, Agata Pavía, VP & Head of FleishmanHillard Technology Team, opened the roundtable as Ms. Carolillo and Mr. Rebuffi set the tone on the forthcoming changes occurring under the Commission’s recently proposed Cybersecurity Package.

In the ensuing discussions, industry representatives underlined their interest in the proposed timeline for the progress on the Cybersecurity package, queried potential avenues for industry engagement, and highlighted the overlaps with the existing standardisation system. The Commission’s proposed voluntary certification framework was a prominent priority for those present. On this topic, thought provoking discussions occurred around the voluntary nature of the certification framework and the true market demand for certified products, and how exactly the certification system would develop specific product schemes.

Closing the session, Claudio Murri, Senior Advisor at FleishmanHillard, remarked that cybersecurity issues had certainly piqued the interest of policymakers, industry, and European citizens. As files within the cybersecurity package have been labelled a priority by the Commission, Parliament, and Council, it was apparent that the topic will be of continued importance politically and legislatively. Accordingly, the roundtable was an excellent opportunity to further understand upcoming cybersecurity landscape and its political and legislative intricacies.