On July 18, more than 100 practitioners, government and association representatives, academics and citizens followed the invitation of the CyberSecPro consortium to join a discussion on the topic “Cybersecurity education and training – not why, but how?”. Hosted with the friendly support of the Representation of the State of Hessen to the EU in Brussels, the event was opened by welcoming words from Martin Friedrich Reinhardt (Head of Unit, Affairs of the Hessian Ministry of the Interior and for Sports, at the Representation of the State of Hessen) and Kai Rannenberg (Chair of Mobile Business & Multilateral Security at Goethe University Frankfurt and project leader of the CyberSecPro project).

Following two short introductory presentations by Panagiotis Marzelas (European Security and Defence College) and Paresh Rathod (Laurea), a discussion panel featuring the following experts was hosted:

• Wojciech Wiewiorowski, European Data Protection Supervisor
• Katarzyna Prusak-Górniak, Deputy Chair of the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre Governing Board und Head of Digital Affairs Unit in the Permanent Representation of Poland to the EU
• Ellen Stassart, Head of the Belgian National Cybersecurity Coordination Centre (NCC-BE)
• Panagiotis Marzelas, European Security and Defence College
• Punit Bhatia, ISACA
• Paresh Rathod, Thematic Leader (Cybersecurity RDI), Laurea, Finland

Panagiotis Marzelas referred to data protection as a good angel on the shoulder of the developer to prevent implementation without proper and appropriate thinking. Paresh Rathod stressed that the CyberSecPro market analysis shows a major need for cybersecurity topics from a diverse set of disciplines. Wojciech Wiewiorowski highlighted that data protection is an integral part of cybersecurity, not a hindrance but an enabler of appropriate development. That the diversity of stakeholders and issues are an important aspect to be covered in cybersecurity was emphasized by Ellen Stassart while Punit Bhatia underlined the importance of integrating cybersecurity and privacy measures into standard work processes.

Reflecting on the challenges and the public event itself, Katarzyna Prusak-Górniak pointed towards CyberSecPro and the meetings in the Hessen representation as an excellent platform supporting the interaction of European cybersecurity stakeholders including some who wanted to meet before but did not get around to that.

Kai Rannenberg, Project Leader of the CyberSecPro project, summarised the event by stating that he was “very happy to see such an excellent and high-ranking panel debate the cybersecurity education and training issues and the first results of CyberSecPro in the context of related European initiatives, activities and requirements. It became clear that we are making progress with the first promising results but still have a long way ahead. I was impressed by the clarity of the requests asking to cover e.g. data protection and the diversity of our target groups. Also, the discussion showed the urgent need for training to think out of the box and consider European digital sovereignty, especially if the respective technologies are not yet as convenient and easy-going as some legacy mainstream technologies”.


Images by: Elio Germani