Barely a month ahead of Les Assises de la Sécurité, ANSSI presented its 2015 activity report. The 40-page document presented an exhaustive review of the Agency, its activities throughout the past year and its recommendations for business. The report is especially interesting because 2015 was an “exceptional” year, marked by a number of important events: publication of implementation texts for the LMP, co-construction of cyber security rules, the Prime Minister’s presentation of the national strategy on digital security (on 16 October), etc. In reviewing its accomplishments, ANSSI director Guillaume Poupard stated that the Agency had “worked very hard to protect key operators and had opened a project on connected objects, which are sources of innovation but also new threats”. Still, information system security experts are unlikely to forget 2015 because of the rise in the number of attacks. Starting with one against TV5 Monde, “the first concrete expression – at least visible to everyone – of a desire to destroy a French entity,” points out Poupard. He added that the Agency “had anticipated the overall scenario, which made it possible to quickly restore the situation and, better yet, learn from it”. In all, France saw some twenty major attacks last year. For its part, the Agency collected over 2 300 malicious codes, received 4 000 alerts (50% more than in 2014) and identified 15 alerts on critical vulnerabilities.
Against this background, it’s more important than ever that the Agency never lower its guard: “ANSSI monitors global news on information system security and vulnerability analyses, risks and threats on a daily basis. It has also deployed an incident reporting service that’s open 24/7.” This approach can be effective only with the cooperation of the entire community in a spirit of sharing and trust: “The Agency will continue to beef up its resources, its expertise and its relations with various stakeholders. However, this doesn’t let everyone else off the hook. We must remember that cyber security is, now more than ever, everyone’s business,” insists Poupard.
Guillaume Poupard will open les Assises de la Sécurité on Wednesday 5 October at 11:45. To know more : click here.