SGS Societe Generale de Surveillance : Participates at the Signature Ceremony for a European Public-Private Partnership on Cybersecurity

SGS took part in the signature ceremony of the contract for a European Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between the European Commission and the recently created European Cyber Security Organization (ECSO) which represents the private sector.

The aim of the PPP is to coordinate public and private activity to stimulate the European cybersecurity industry across sectors such as energy, transport, health and finance, via a number of measures:

• Bringing together industrial and public resources to improve Europe's industrial policy on cybersecurity, focusing on innovation and following a jointly agreed strategic research and innovation (R&I) roadmap. During the period 2017-2020 an investment of around EUR 1.8 billion is expected for innovation actions within the cybersecurity area. A quarter of that will come from the European Commission and the rest from industry
• Helping build trust among Member States and industrial actors by fostering bottom-up cooperation on research and innovation, to increase Europe's cyber resilience
• Helping to stimulate the cybersecurity industry by aligning the demand and supply for cybersecurity products and services, and allowing the industry to efficiently elicit future requirements from end-users
• Leveraging funding from the Horizon2020 (H2020) research & innovation programme and maximizing the impact of available industry funds, through better coordination and tighter focus on a few technical priorities
• Providing visibility to European R&I excellence in cyber security and digital privacy

The cybersecurity market, one of the fastest growing markets in the information and communication technology sector, yields huge economic opportunities. Strengthening the EU's cybersecurity industry will allow European businesses to seize these opportunities and reinforce trust of citizens and businesses in the digital world, contributing to the goals of the Digital Single Market strategy.

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ECSO is an industry-led organisation with members including a wide variety of stakeholders such as large European companies, SMEs & startups, users & operators, research centers, universities, clusters & associations, local, regional & national administrations of Member States, European Economic Area & European Free Trade Association countries and H2020 associated countries. The main objective of ECSO is to support all types of initiatives or projects that aim to develop, promote and/or encourage European cybersecurity.

The launch of the PPP was hosted by the Vice President for the Digital Single Market, Andrus Ansip and the Commissioner for the Digital Economy & Society, Günter H. Oettinger, in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on July 5. The signature ceremony was attended by a selected number of organizations with a relevant role in ECSO, including SGS.

François Marti, SGS Executive Vice President for Industrial, was in attendance to answer questions about certification needs in the European security market.

SGS represents the only testing, inspection and certification (TIC) company to take part as a member of ECSO. Together with teams from other organizations, SGS played a key role in the development of the Strategic Research and Innovation Cybersecurity Agenda for Europe which provided the foundation for investment projects for the PPP.

The participation of SGS in this European PPP follows the launch of the certification scheme for cybersecurity of critical infrastructure protection and the supply chain, which took place in Spain on June 2, and of which SGS is a founding member.

These recent initiatives are part of SGS' TIC 4.0 and digitalization strategy, which aims to position the Group as a global leader in developing safe, effective and profitable solutions for clients based on major technology trends including big data, smart sensors and virtual communities.

For more information, please contact:
Sergio Lomban Lage
Business Development Manager
SGS Spain
t: +34 91 313 91 28
www.sgs.com

About SGS

SGS is the world's leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company. SGS is recognized as the global benchmark for quality and integrity. With more than 85,000 employees, SGS operates a network of over 1,800 offices and laboratories around the world.