On July 5, 2016 the public-private partnership contract for promoting the European cybersecurity and ICT industry represented by the newly founded ECSO has been signed. The formal signing took place in Strasbourg in the presence of EU Commissioner Günther Oettinger and EU Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip, with secunet participating in this ceremony as a founder member of ECSO.
"With the ECSO, we are supporting in the area of cybersecurity EU Commissioner Günther Oettinger's ambition of increasing Europe's digital sovereignty by way of a digital single market in Europe", states Dr. Luigi Rebuffi, ECSO Chairman. "As an innovative and leading supplier of cryptographic solutions and highly-secure IT in Germany, secunet is a valuable partner to us."
"The European IT economy is fragmented, making it all the more important to promote successful niches such as IT security and bring together market segments at European level – which is something the European Commission is currently working on as part of their collaboration with the ECSO. We are delighted to be making a contribution to this in our role as a founder member of the ECSO", says Dr. Rainer Baumgart, CEO at secunet.
About European Cyber Security Organisation
The primary objective of ECSO, founded in Brussels on 13 June, 2016, as a non-profit organisation (ASBL – Association Sans But Lucratif) under Belgian law, is to support all types of initiatives or projects that aim to develop, promote and encourage European cybersecurity, and in particular to:
- Foster and protect from cyber threats the growth of the European Digital Single Market
- Develop the European cybersecurity market and the growth of a competitive European cybersecurity and ICT industry, with an increased market position
- Develop and implement European cybersecurity solutions for the critical steps of trusted supply chains, in sectoral applications where Europe is a leader.
The ECSO is taking concrete steps to achieve these objectives. For example, it is developing a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) and supporting demonstration and pilot projects, which drive forward innovation in the cybersecurity and ICT market. The ECSO also generally functions as a contractual partner to the EU Commission in public-private partnership agreements in connection with IT security.
ECSO members include large European companies, SMEs and start-ups, research centres, universities, clusters and associations, users and operators as well as European Member State’s local, regional and national administrations, countries part of the European Economic Area (EEA) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and H2020 associated countries.
