The 2017 Innovative SME Award (Olivier Ligneul, EDF)

The 2017 Innovative SME Award is part of an excellent year. In addition to innovations in data and hardware security solutions ensuring a higher level of trust, the cybersecurity industry appears to have entered a new stage of maturity. Our start-ups are providing solutions to secure new uses (the IoT, 3D printing, the blockchain, etc.). The working methods of IS security experts will also advance thanks to a better incorporation of cyber affairs into the field of architecture, with security by design, and into the way in which the level of trust of applications may be assessed through bug bounty platforms and ethical red teaming.

We would like to express our heartfelt congratulations to our three winners who perfectly illustrate these major trends : Prove & Run, with its Innovative SME Award, confirms the excellence of our researchers who have evinced a great fighting spirit and plenty of perseverance in their work. The French Military Planning Law has led to a transformation of part of the IS security industry. Gatewatcher, a Special Jury Award, addresses some responses to these regulatory requirements. Finally, Yes We Hack, a firm favourite of the jury, will assuredly advance our understanding of the methods of analysis of externally facing applications.

As CISO of the EDF Group, I am delighted to see the emergence of such solutions which will meet the major challenges of the next few years, particularly in the fields of network segmentation and connected objects.