Industrial policy: the holy grail of French cybersecurity strategy?*. Issue 3 (2nd September 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: D'Elia, Danilo
• Is Part Of: Journal of cyber policy. Volume 3:Issue 3(2018)
• Page Start: 385
• Page End: 406
• Publication Date: 2018-09-02
• Subjects: Cybersecurity -- industrial policy -- France -- risk management -- geopolitics -- territory; Cyberspace -- Periodicals; Internet -- Periodicals; Cyber intelligence (Computer security) -- Periodicals; 004.6
• DOI: 10.1080/23738871.2018.1553988
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2373-8871

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The 2008 White Paper on Defence and National Security was the first major document to focus directly on national cyberthreats as a key risk to France's sovereignty. It defined new priorities – such as cyberattack prevention and response – and established, in July 2009, the National Agency for the Security of Information System (ANSSI) as an inter-ministerial agency with national authority for the defence of information systems. In 2013, a new version of the White Paper reiterated that the capacity to detect and protect against cyberattacks was 'an essential component of [France's] national sovereignty and economic well-being'. The same year, the French government launched an ambitious programme and invested considerable efforts and expenditure into cybersecurity industrial policy. This article summarises the structural characteristics of public-private partnerships and outlines the different conflicts behind the industrial movements in the 2009–2015 period: representation of digital sovereignty versus corporate interest in the global market, national defence champions versus the start-up ecosystem.