[FIC 2023] Security of Olympic Games, IoT, smart cities… The State signs a pact with French industrialists

It was THE big government announcement from the Lille International Cybersecurity Forum (FIC). Secretary of State for Digital Cédric O and Secretary of State to the Minister of Economy Agnès Pannier-Runacher announced the signing of the strategic contract for the "Security industries" sector on January 29, 2023.

The objective of this agreement is to structure the security sector, which today includes 4,000 companies, covers 130,000 jobs and has a turnover of 25 billion euros. Faced with intensifying international competition, France has no choice but to group its nuggets to work effectively. Three main challenges have been identified: mastering a national and European offer "strong and confident", develop digital identity solutions alternative to those of the American technology giants and have a"trusted cloud offering"which is not subject to non-European jurisdictions.

The State and private partners have made reciprocal commitments on five main projects: the security of major events, including the 2024 Olympic Games, cybersecurity and IoT security, digital identity, trusted territories and trusted digital.

1) The security of major events and the 2024 Olympic Games

Securing major events has become a central issue. The hosting of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris takes this question to a whole new level. Indeed, the Olympic Games constitute "an exceptional showcase for the French security offers that will be deployed".

In this regard, the industry is committed to "federate the best team in France","build a collaborative approach with the State"and co-finance R&D collaboration"to ensure the best technological level of the solutions implemented". In return, the State promises to constitute and animate"an interdepartmental brand team"and solicit "a security budget for the Olympic Games and major international events"steered by the Ministry of the Interior.

2) Cybersecurity and IoT security

Cybersecurity products and services represented € 6.6 billion in revenue in France for 2025, nearly 35,000 jobs, and annual growth of around 12%. However, the offer remains very fragmented (63% of digital trust companies have a turnover of less than 2 million euros) and highly exposed to global competition, the dominant players of which are concentrated in a few countries like "the United States and Israel".

Faced with this observation, manufacturers agree to set up a "State-Industries-Users Forum"install"two mutualized export support centers", strengthen the" France Cybersecurity "label and participate in the scale-up investment fund. For its part, the State will have to set up cybersecurity training, support the label and the forum, support the development of a "world-class trade fair"and encourage a strengthening of"cybersecurity funding arrangements".

3) The digital identity

Digital identity is therefore at "heart of digital sovereignty"to fight fraud and effectively protect personal data, whether in public or private use. For the State, the main threat is that of foreign technology giants who will offer digital identity services competing with its own.

To try to win this race, manufacturers must define a "single specification"of the operating system of the future national electronic identity card (CNIE), rapidly building solutions and developing"awareness actions"For their part, the State services undertake to deploy the CNIE from 2024, to define an economic model and to continue the deployment of FranceConnect.

4) Trusted territories

Under the terms of the contract, the concept of "territories of trust" is understood as "the means deployed to ensure the security of the smart city and smart territories, including overseas, to port and maritime areas"The security of these new cities is a major and inescapable issue.

The industry therefore undertakes to define "a charter on the use of security technologies", at least experiment"three new key uses in co-innovation with the territories " and launch a "protection of new health facility"in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. In return, theco-innovationtat must raise awareness of the need for security in the territories, support the launch of "dthem demonstration projects"and"support legislative and regulatory developments" on this topic.

5) Digital confidence

This last theme is much broader because it touches on "digital" in general. The objective of this project is mainly focused on "the trusted cloud"or sovereign cloud. In this regard, manufacturers must contribute to the work of the State on the definition of sensitive data, offer enough "qualified offers"to meet user needs, submit IaaS, PaaS and SaaS hosting and offers and enhance transparency in the cloud.

The State, for its part, will have to favor reversible solutions within the framework of its public contracts, define more precisely the content of sensitive data and support the development of the sector to offer competitive cloud offers of trust, whether on the hosting, IaaS, PaaS or SaaS.

This contract constitutes a gigantic project which should help France to weigh on the international scene in the face of "super cyberpowers", as Guillaume Poupard, director general of the National Agency for Information Systems Security calls them. During his traditional press conference at the FIC, the latter recalled the importance of structuring this sector at the risk of having to "are subservient".