"Emergency has now become the norm. Cyber attacks affect all contexts of economic life in our country. Last year, the National Cybersecurity Agency was launched, which clears an important topic: cyber is not only intelligence, but also corporate and business'. To discuss one of the crucial issues of our future as a sovereign state equal to the challenges, StartupItalia interviewed the CEO of Defence Tech, EmilioGisondihead of a holding company controlling three operating companies (Next, Donexit and FoRaMil) and active in sectors ranging from Defence and Aerospace until the microdesign electronics.The market it refers to is banking, energy, insurance and infrastructure. If 2021 will be remembered for some cyber attacks such as the one on the Colonial Pipeline at States United (we learned about the ransomware), 2022 may confront us with new flaws in the system. What can such a structured entity do to innovate? And can start-ups aspire to a role in Defence?
Defence Tech: entering the start-up world
"The topic of start-ups is fundamental for us," explained the ad Gisondi - also because they represent the target audience as a private equity player'. In the coming months Defence Tech, so we have been informed, is expected to announce a list of innovative companies in which it has chosen to invest. "They mostly come from the academic and university world. One issue has to be explained: despite the high demand for products and services, it is not easy for a start-up to present itself on the market with solutions. That is why we stand ready to help them with references in the eyes of potential customers.
At the moment we know that the objectives of Defence Techin the innovation ecosystem do not only look at the startup which have already mature technology. 'What we are interested in is evaluating its goodness,' commented CEO Gisondi, 'and there are two ways: either we buy a majority stake, or we establish a partnership. We do not dwell on the profit and loss account or the market prospects in the short term'. So even those in the early internship can aspire to dialogue with a group that just listed on Euronext Growth Milan, is undergoing a transformation from a business model based on providing services to one based on providing products.
Digital transition means more risks
For years on StartupItalia We also report on this area of innovation: several young companies have landed on the market with products and services of cybersecurity. But reasoning at the defence level is not enough. "We cannot establish full infrastructure security today if we do not invest in serious research centres. And that is what we expect from the National Cybersecurity Agency: our interest is to work together to propose a national centre for malaware analysis to prevent attacks through the signs that can be detected. Needless to say, there are SMEs that are resilient to attacks. Investments must come through the classified world like ours, which is government-run. Nothing is solved by giving third-party commercial software, produced in other countries'. Here then, cleansing it of any hint of ideology, the concept of sovereignism associated with the figure shows the way forward.
"We need to invest in domestic industry so that sovereign data remains in Italy. Data sovereignty is crucial for a nation to defend itself against cyber attacks in the economy and beyond. We cannot limit ourselves to looking at theft within companies'. But what are the aspects that a company like Defence Tech is focusing on the most? "We come from the classified world, with strict rules and military security tools. I believe we don't have to export this know-how outside, but the approach and methodology we use are the future also for the corporate world. We do compromise analysis with software agents: there are attacks that even the most sophisticated technologies cannot detect'.
The digital identity node
In the press the attachments and the date leak to the detriment of big players get an international echo. But there is one aspect that CEO Gisondi brought out that impacts us all. "Cybersecurity also means securing our digital identities. Identity theft will be an increasing risk, and with the fake green passes we have had a first taste of this. There is a huge market behind it. If we focus as a country on digitisation, we have to accept that attacks will also increase."
The interview on Start Up Italy 👇
