On 13 May 2022, CyberWal (short for ‘Cyber Security for Wallonia’) was officially launched as a strategic initiative of the Walloon Region. Since this day, all actors working on cyber security within Wallonia are assembled under the umbrella of this consortium. CyberWal is the brainchild of Professor Axel Legay (UCLouvain) and should be seen as a real game-changer in the Belgian cyber security landscape, combining education, research, and innovation projects.
The Galaxia business park in Redu, in the province of Luxembourg, was chosen as the base of operations for this consortium. "Above all, we should welcome this necessary initiative,” says Georges Cottin, Deputy General Manager of the Group IDELUX, the province’s agency for sustainable economic development. "Getting this chance to establish and, above all, develop a fully-fledged ecosystem is an exceptional opportunity for the region and for our country."
European Cyber Security Centre of Excellence
The ecosystem also emerged thanks to the federal government's efforts, as it is inextricably linked to the decision to house one of the European Space Agency's (ESA) operational centres in Wallonia. “The ESA is setting up a Cyber Security Operations Centre at its site in Redu, where the European Space Security and Education Centre (ESEC) is located. This illustrates the key role of the ESEC in terms of cyber security in Europe, which was reconfirmed by the 22 Member States of the ESA in November 2022,” Georges Cottin explains.
These initiatives should eventually lead to the official inauguration of the European Cyber Security Centre of Excellence by the end of 2023. The 3,300 m2 state-of-the-art infrastructure, provided by RHEA Group, an international group in engineering consultancy, will welcome a vast group of cyber security professionals. This concentration of knowledge and actors thus provides the perfect context for the expansion of CyberWal. “All this will eventually lead to a true Belgian space and cyber valley with European ambitions,” Georges Cottin said.
International visibility
Georges Cottin also highlights the role of the Walloon government in the development of this site and the accompanying ecosystem around cyber security. “Thanks to funding from the regional economic recovery plan, and the support we received from Minister of Economy and Digitalisation Willy Borsus, today we possess a quantum cyber security demonstration model and a cyber range, which will be used for training and testing. The infrastructure is at the disposal of both our universities, research centres, and companies.”
This focus on training will become one of the spearheads of this newly established ecosystem in future. In December 2022, for example, a training week on cyber security was organised. This initiative brought together seventy students from Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and will continue over the next two years. “This contributes directly to CyberWal's higher goal of building bridges between the needs of institutions and companies on the one hand and the academic and research world on the other,” Cottin clarifies.
CyberWal’s clear objective should eventually lead to increased, international visibility of the region, and by extension of Belgium, in the field of cyber security. “The ecosystem allows us to go beyond the borders of our own region. At a time when Europe, in terms of cyber security, is increasingly federalising, this is a crucial development,” concludes professor and CyberWal inspiration Axel Legay.