Cybersecurity & Defense Day at École Polytechnique

École Polytechnique hosted the Cybersecurity & Defense Day, which brought together major players in cybersecurity and defense from academia, institutions, and industry. The event was organized by the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, of which École Polytechnique is a founding member, in partnership with the Interdisciplinary Center for Defense and Security Studies (CIEDS) and the French Institue for Advanced Studies in National Defense (IHEDN) Chair in Cybersecurity and Digital Sovereignty, which is affiliated with the IHEDN  through its endowment fund.

On October 21, the Cybersecurity & Defense Day brought together major players in security and defense from academia, institutions, and industry at École Polytechnique, at a time when cyberspace has rapidly become the area for new conflicts. 

Changes in digital uses and tools, combined with the rise in conflicts, have made it necessary to rethink data protection, making cybersecurity a multidisciplinary issue that requires not only technological expertise, but also geostrategic, ethical, and industrial expertise.

“Cybersecurity is essentially a new front line in the 21st century, a front line on which our hospitals, power grids, and satellites are all vulnerable and under attack every day. These attacks are automated, industrialized, and sometimes geopolitical,” said Laura Chaubard, Executive Director and Interim President of École Polytechnique, at the opening of the event. 

She emphasized that two technological breakthroughs are currently changing the game in cybersecurity: artificial intelligence, which can generate but also counter attacks in an automated and high-frequency manner, and the advent of quantum computing, which challenges current cryptography.

Laura Chaubard reiterated the willingness of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris to use the combined strengths of its member schools to develop a strong academic and industrial sector that will guarantee French and European sovereignty in the field of cybersecurity. 

Proposed by the Interdisciplinary Center for Defense and Security (CIEDS), supported by the Ministry of the Armed Forces and the Defense Innovation Agency, as well as the Cyber and Digital Sovereignty Chair – 

Institute for Advanced Studies in National Defense (IHEDN),  attached to the Institute for Higher National Defense Studies through its Endowment Fund, the event addressed topics such as:

•    The challenges raised by recent European initiatives aimed at providing effective and reliable access to data for judicial authorities, and their profound implications for cybersecurity and cryptography.
•   The emergence of new forms of attacks, particularly those targeting hardware, which can lead to critical data leaks.
•   Innovative uses of artificial intelligence in cybersecurity, as well as the specific risks associated with the data exploited by these techniques.

Sonia Vanier, Professor in the Computer Science Department at École Polytechnique, Head of the Trusted AI Chair, Head of X-Crédit Agricole, and Head of the AI and Optimization for Mobility Chair at X-SNCF, was among the speakers at the morning round table dedicated to AI and cybersecurity. 

Anamaria Costache, visiting professor and researcher at the Information Laboratory (LIX) at École Polytechnique, was among the researchers from the Institut Polytechnique de Paris invited to the afternoon round table to discuss their recent research work directly related to data protection issues.