About ECSO

Mission & Objectives

The European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO) ASBL is a fully self-financed non-for-profit organisation under the Belgian law, established in June 2016.

ECSO is the privileged partner of the European Commission for the implementation of the Cybersecurity Public-Private Partnership. ECSO federates the European Cybersecurity public and private stakeholders, including large companies, SMEs and start-ups, research centres, universities, end-users and operators of essential services, clusters and association, as well as the local, regional and national public administrations across the European Union (EU) Members States, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and H2020 Programme associated countries.

The main goal of ECSO is to coordinate the development of the European Cybersecurity Ecosystem support the protection of European Digital Single Market, ultimately to contribute to the advancement of European digital sovereignty and strategic autonomy.

• FEDERATE & CONNECT:, ECSO Federates the European Cybersecurity Public and Private Community and facilitates the networking and cooperation at European level
• ACT: ECSO Supports members' needs and market development in public-private cooperation with concrete actions/initiatives geared towards increasing strategic autonomy.  
• SUPPORT; ECSO is a recognised actor in the European institutional landscape, it cooperates with European institutions, bodies and agencies as well as National Public administrations for the development and implementation of EU policies, programmes and legislations to increase digital autonomy.

Collaborations

About our collaborations

ECSO is a pan European, multi-stakeholders and cross sectoral partnership organisation working on cybersecurity with a holistic approach. In light of this we seek out to establish and strengthen our collaboration with various other actors and stakeholders part of the European cybersecurity ecosystem. The objective of each collaboration is to complement each other’s work, avoid duplication, learn from one another and promote the objective and vision of ECSO.

European Institutions

ECSO maintains close collaboration with European Commissioners and top-level management of the European Commission's DGs including DG CNECT, DG RTD, DG ENER, DG MOVE, JRC, DG DIGIT, EEAS

Upon the invitation of the Presidency of the Council of the EU, ECSO is regularly invited to provide updates on the status of its work to the Horizontal Working Party on Cyber Issues of the Council.

ECSO closely engages with Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), Committees and Political Groups providing independent assessments on European legislative proposals such as the implementation of the NIS Directive, the Cybersecurity Act including the establishment of a European Certification Framework and the definition of ENISA's new mandate, as well as the set-up of a European Cybersecurity Industrial, Technology and Research Competence Centre and the Network of National Coordination Centres. In parallel, ECSO fosters relations between MEPs and ECSO Members addressing key topics such as support to SMEs, regional development, R&I, investments, disruptive technologies, etc as well as ECSO Initiatives like Women4Cyber and Youth4Cyber.

Governance

Board of Directors

ECSO Chairperson

Axel Deininger

Secunet

Axel Deininger has been on the Management Board of secunet Security Networks AG since January 2018 and took over as CEO in June 2019. In October 2021, Axel Deininger was elected Chairperson of the European Cybersecurity Organisation (ECSO). Before joining secunet, Axel Deininger held various positions at the Munich-based Giesecke+Devrient Group for more than ten years, most recently as Group Senior VP and Head of Division Connectivity & Devices at G+D Mobile Security GmbH. The industrial engineer has also gained many years of management experience from positions at companies such as Siemens AG, Infineon Technologies AG and Samsung Semiconductor Europe GmbH.

ECSO Vice chairs

Members of Board of Directors

Secretariat