LSEC - Leaders in Security

Europe’s top security organizations join forces

Paris, Swindon, Berlin, Leuven, March 24, 2010

Four major security clusters in Europe launch the Security Innovation Network SIGNATURE to increase the competitiveness of enterprises and organisations in North-Western Europe. SIGNATURE’s members are SITC (UK), SYSTEM@TIC Paris Region (France), LSEC (Belgium), nGage (UK) and TeleTrusT (Germany). Jointly, these clusters gather over 1,000 companies from all over the world – including Thales, SAGEM, Zetes, Vasco, McAfee, Sophos, Unisys and Dimension Data – with an enormous expertise in security. They are accompanied by a number of innovative start-up’s, top researchers and academic experts. The project is supported through the European Regional Development Fund.

Security unleashed
The Security Innovation Network (SIGNATURE) aims to support innovation development in the physical and logical security sector. Potential threats facing the region, such as industrial espionage, identity fraud and possible drawbacks of virtualization and cloud computing will be addressed to improve NWE’s competitiveness in a global market.
The Security Innovation Network has been set up to facilitate the collaboration and working relationships between companies and experts in different areas of security in the UK, France, Belgium and Germany. In a series of interactive workshops, security experts will be challenged with current and future potential threats. For the first time, these activities will focus on a converging landscape and cross state borders.
The different cluster networks will also organize public and closed user group discussions. Some results will lead to the development of new research & development programs or joint development activities between companies and experts. Other outcomes will be shared amongst the enterprise and SME markets throughout the region.

Open Innovation
The project is supported by the European Regional Development Fund by means of the INTERREG IVB NWE program and is specifically focused towards supporting innovative developments within Small and Medium Sized companies in the domain of security. Companies are welcome to introduce their ideas or challenges to the partnership.
The participating clusters are open to public-private partnerships, other European networks and companies and individuals that would like to participate. “The aim is to strengthen the whole landscape,” says Ulrich Seldeslachts, CEO of LSEC. “Borders have faded or have become non-existent due to the pervasiness of digital networks. Attackers are often well organized, whereas the solutions and the expertise to fight them are typically very fragmented. With this initiative, the local clusters aim to expand their natural habitat with a structure that increases trust amongst the participants, facilitates innovation and increases competitiveness.”
According to SYSTEM@TIC Paris Region, “governments are facing security challenges that go way beyond their current borders. Today, we should already be considering mechanisms to protect ourselves in 2015 and beyond.”
The society of the future will be marked by “the Internet of Things”, which means that devices and systems will become increasingly connected and self-sustaining. “Technologies and systems that protect individuals and infrastructures need to develop rapidly to keep pace with new emerging threats. SIGNATURE allows us to bring together innovatiors and technologists from multiple countries to ensure that NWE remains a global leader in producing the sophisticated security solutions needed in today’s complex threat environment, “ says Paul Osborne of SITC (Security Innovation and Technology Consortium), a UK based not-for-profit organisation that aims at increasing the exploitation of innovation and technology in security solutions.

About LSEC - Leaders in Security
LSEC is a Flemish non-profit organization, supported by the IWT, which has offered support to the Belgian information security sector in Belgium and abroad since 2002. An expertise centre, LSEC ensures that both large companies and SMEs in Belgium have an edge in terms of technological know-how through knowledge exchange and co-operation. LSEC co-ordinates about seventy companies specialized in products and services for information security and risk management, as well as three thousand professional users of these applications and processes. Through its partners, LSEC is also active in Germany, the UK, Israel and the US.
For more information, please go to http://www.lsec.be

About SYSTEM@TIC PARIS-REGION
The French SYSTEM@TIC PARIS-REGION competitiveness cluster brings together 500 key players in the Ile-de-France region working in the field of software-dominant systems and focusing on markets with a strong social dimension. The goal of the cluster is to develop the regional economy, boost the competitiveness of companies based there and support employment growth by leveraging innovation, training and partnership opportunities. To date, the SYSTEM@TIC PARIS-REGION Cluster has developed 200 R&D projects representing a total cost of €958M, including €372M of financial support from the French Government, its economic development agencies (the National Research Agency and the OSEO) and from the Paris-Region local governments.
For more details: http://www.systematic-paris-region.org

About SITC
SITC is a not-for-profit membership organisation dedicated to supporting the development of innovative and technologically sophisticated security solutions, backed by the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA). 
For further details see: http://www.securityintech.com.

About ngage
ngage is an innovative provider of publicly-funded business support solutions. We seek to create markets, nurture growth and stimulate economic development.  Our mission is to add value to the economic landscape through the delivery of publicly-funded services to the benefit of aspiring entrepreneurs, businesses and communities.
For a full list of projects ngage has delivered, visit http://www.ngagesolutions.co.uk.

About INTERREG IVB North West Europe
INTERREG IVB NWE is a financial instrument of the European Union’s Cohesion Policy. It funds projects which support transnational cooperation. The aim is to find innovative ways to make the most of territorial assets and tackle shared problems of Member States, regions and other authorities.

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By Ulrich Seldeslachts

01-Jun-2010