Activities, WG3 - Cyber Resilience of Economy, Infrastructure and Services

ECSO’s CISO European Community breaks the taboo of threat information sharing

03/02/2022

ECSO’s CISO European Community breaks the taboo of threat information sharing

As our world becomes more digital, the role of Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) gains even more importance, especially when it comes to a company’s security/resiliency posture and business continuity. Nevertheless, European CISOs today still lack political and strategic weight and are not as efficient as they could be if provided with adequate resources. To meet this demand, ECSO is inviting European CISOs to join its first CISOs European Community covering all sectors and all European countries for information sharing and strategic threat intelligence, networking, trust development and more.

In today’s world, sharing threat information is no longer a taboo, or at least it shouldn’t be, because when it comes to data security, sticking to one’s own knitting is not enough. It is no secret, in fact, that many data breaches could have been prevented or quickly solved thanks to the exchange of information and best practices among CISOs, which is why ECSO has built Europe’s first community dedicated to these professionals.

“There is currently no European-wide CISO organisation which covers all sectors and countries”, says ECSO Secretary General Luigi Rebuffi. “This is why ECSO has built the first European CISO community to overcome the current fragmentation at European level and meet this demand for exchange of information in a safe and trusted environment”, he adds.

Being part of a large European community composed by peers and at the same time bringing together stakeholders working in different sectors is unique, yet essential to build an efficient cybersecurity strategy for one’s company.

“In the bigger picture, gathering CISOs from all over Europe is key to building an autonomous and digitally strategic Europe, also improving trusted relationships with suppliers”, says Mr. Rebuffi. “Joining ECSO’s CISO Community also means working on shaping the EU’s cybersecurity policies with key stakeholders from across the private and public sector, as ECSO works closely with the European Commission and other European institutions and national agencies dealing with cybersecurity”, he concludes.

ECSO’s Working Group 3 dedicated to Cyber Resilience of Economy, Infrastructure & Services is now moving forward with the support of its newly-elected chairpersons, who will contact national peers and continue to grow ECSO’s European CISO community. Working Group 3 has currently several chairpersons: Simone Pezzoli (Autostrade per l’Italia) and Antonio Fernandes (Finsa) for the CISO European Community, i.e. the EU CISO Network; Paul Bayle (Atos), Eric Singer (Schneider Electric), Giorgio Cusmà Lorenzo (Intesa Sanpaolo) and Olivier Ligneul (EDF) for the CISO Strategic Committee part where strategic information is shared.

If you are a European CISO looking to be part of a wider community of peers, then contact us at wg3_secretariat@ecs-org.eu and find out more about ECSO’s related activities at this link.