The Minister of the Economy, Lex Delles, who was abroad, addressed the audience via a video message, stressing the importance of cybersecurity as an economic asset in our digital and data-driven society and thanking all those involved, from near and far, in the national cybersecurity campaign that takes place every year in October (this year, 7 institutional events were organised in this context, targeting various sectors of activity from finance to education and the industry).

François Thill, Director of Cybersecurity at the Ministry of the Economy and Pascal Steichen, Founder and CEO of the Luxembourg House of Cybersecurity, both reflected on the past and future successes of CYBERSECURITY Luxembourg, the national cybersecurity ecosystem.

For the first time, this ceremony was directly linked to the annual hack.lu conference dedicated to the information security community. Hack.lu gathered not less than 500 people from all over the world, counting on 75+ speakers and 15 sponsors and partners.

Linking the two events was intended to connect all worlds – as cybersecurity is a global issue that requires a collaborative approach at all levels (academia, business, government, etc.).

The Gala was an opportunity to bring together profiles from all horizons.

In keeping with tradition, 5 award winners were honoured during the ceremony.

Since this year’s Gala & Awards Night was held within the frame of hack.lu we are especially happy to present the award “Best Paper at hack.lu” which went to Pedro Umbelino for “Blowing up gas stations for fun and profit”.

Pedro Umbelino and Alexandre Dulaunoy (CIRCL)

After placing 27th in the European Cybersecurity Challenge 2024 TeamLU was honored as Luxembourg’s Most Promising Young Talents. This award is supported by the Directorate of Defence, which also kindly offered the CyberRange to the team in order to prepare for the upcoming challenge. The team would also like to thank this year’s sponsor PwC Luxembourg.

Simon Petitjean (PwC), TeamLU and Ben Fetler (Directorate of Defence)

Cortex Security S.A., represented by its CEO Ziya Genç who participated in the Fit4Start competition this year, received the Cybersecurity Startup Award, selected by LHC. The award goes to one of the startups running in the Fit4Start programme and comes with support from the LHC.

Pascal Steichen (LHC) and Ziya Genç (Cortex Security)

The DPO of the Year was announced by the previously awarded DPOs, Maximilien Spielmann (DPO of the Year 2022) and Julien Winkin (DPO of the Year 2023) and it is…Claudio Orlando Miele, DPO at Forvis Mazars Luxembourg, for its innovative approach to the role of DPO. Congratulations!

Julien Winkin (Vice-President of the Jury), Claudio Orlando Miele et Maximilien Spielmann (President of the Jury)

The awards ceremony was concluded with the presentation of the new CISO of the Year 2024, who will represent an entire community for a year and receives a free 1- year membership to CLUSIL. Guy Isler (CISO of the Year 2022) and Frank Bedell (CISO of the Year 2023) bestowed Luc Cottin, CEO of Rsecure, with this honour and responsibility.

Cédric Mauny (CLUSIL), Guy Isler (President of the Jury), Jean-Guy Roche et Matthieu Jungers (representing Luc Cottin) et Franck Bedell (Vice-President of the Jury)

To celebrate the winners of the evening and give the community a chance to connect in a relaxed environment the evening continued with drinks, a walking dinner and a live band that gave the energetic soundtrack for the night after a happy winning team managed to keep their heads cool when faced with cunning spam and phishing mails.

We once again congratulate all the winners and are looking forward to seeing their path in cybersecurity continue!

A big thank you to the jury members that gave their time and energy to select this year’s winners, there wouldn’t have been an event without you!