Tag Archive for: bets

Luxembourg bets on supercomputers | Financial Times

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Cyber attacks are unlikely ever to be eliminated, according to some experts.

“Prevention of security issues is a lost cause,” says Koen Maris, cybersecurity leader at management consultancy PwC Luxembourg. He says that, for organisations, it is better to detect and eliminate an attack as early as possible, instead of “putting all your money in the prevention basket”. 

There certainly is money available. For a country with a population of less than a million people, nearly half of whom hold foreign nationality, the Luxembourg cybersecurity industry is booming. According to LuxInnovation, the national innovation agency, the Grand Duchy has 310 companies working in the field, 80 of which have cybersecurity as their core business. A third of start-ups have cybersecurity as their core.

By comparison, the UK, with a population more than 100 times larger, at 67m, had 1,200 cybersecurity companies at the end of 2019 — less than four times the number in Luxembourg.

Franz Fayot

“We see cybersecurity not only as a defence issue, but also as an economic success factor,” says economy minister Franz Fayot. 

An organisation called Security Made in Lëtzebuerg, set up by the Ministry of the Economy, provides cybersecurity services free of charge. Its UK and French counterparts, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI), both stem from the French ministry of defence and the UK’s intelligence organisation GCHQ respectively.

“This subtle difference in focus means that the ecosystem [in Luxembourg] is more strongly geared towards business needs, rather than those of the military,” says Laurent de la Vaissière, partner at management consultancy KPMG.

The EU is hoping its investment in supercomputers can help find new coronavirus drugs © AFP via Getty Images

The Luxembourg government is not just focused on protection, but also on supporting its financial industry and remaining an attractive business partner. Investment in expanding technological capacity and infrastructure continues, with projects including MeluXina, a €30m supercomputer that is expected to be completed in May. It is backed by the…

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With new startup, Check Point Software co-founder bets on perimeter-less security

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The launch of cloud security startup Cato Networks by cybersecurity expert Shlomo Kramer reminded me of the episode of USA’s Mr. Robot when Elliot Alderson explains why he chose his healthcare provider – limited security budget and limited security staff let him break through the perimeter defenses and change his medical records to cover up his lifestyle. In the real world, though, cyber threats are scaling faster than enterprises can respond. Like Elliot, Kramer is counting on enterprises with limited security staff and budgets turning to his new venture for end-to-end, perimeter-less security.

According to a report by Reuters, Cato Networks is different because it asks customers to move all their traffic to its encrypted network. In other words, Cato is the opposite of Check Point Software Technologies, the company Kramer co-founded in 1998 that invented a perimeter defense used by almost all enterprises. The mobile internet has changed how the enterprise works. Large numbers of employees operate outside of the traditional security perimeter, necessitating a new way of looking at cyber defenses.

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Network World Security

Ello bets its life on ad-free, privacy-focused social networking

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Social networking newcomer Ello, which saw a massive increase in popularity last month after unintentionally serving as an alternative to those protesting Facebook’s controversial name policy, recently raised $ 5.5 million in Series A funding from Colorado-based venture capital firm Foundry Group.

The funding might come as a surprise to some given Ello’s stance on advertising and user privacy, namely in that it rejects the former and has vowed to protect the latter. Investors need to eventually see a return on the money they give to their startups. In order to provide that return, the past decade’s social networking startups have flooded their sites with advertisements and sold their users’ data to marketers.

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Network World Colin Neagle

Littoral failure: Navy hedges bets on high-tech littoral combat ships

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The USS Freedom (LCS-1), one of three littoral combat ships now in service, is designed for fighting the last war—but probably not the next.
US Navy

The Navy’s littoral combat ship (LCS) was supposed to be the ship of the future, designed to be easily converted from one role to another with a relatively quick swap-out of “mission modules.” But what the Navy got instead was a range of headaches and a ship with significantly less flexibility and capability than the ships the LCS was replacing. Now, as National Defense reports, the Department of Defense has cut the number of ships to be built nearly in half, and it has put future purchases on hold while it considers its options.

But there could still be good news for the defense contractors building the LCS: the options include a beefed-up version of the ship that could raise its cost further—and increase the profits of Lockheed Martin and Austal USA in the process. Considering the fact that these ships have already had significant problems (including “aggressive corrosion“ of one design’s hull because it didn’t include cathodic protection), yet another design change could cost the US billions more for a class of ships that has never lived up to its concept.

Stu Slade, warship analyst for Forecast International, told National Defense, “This isn’t a done deal. It’s certainly a setback for the LCS program viewed in isolation, but it’s one that could yet be reversed” because the cuts won’t hit until 2016—when the White House gets a new occupant.

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