Ben Fetler has been leading the cyber defence efforts for the Luxembourg government since 2019. Here are a few excerpts from a recent his discussion with Pascal Steichen. Follow the link below to watch the full interview.

What’s behind Luxembourg Cyber Defence?

“I started in the cyber team at the Luxembourg Directorate of Defence in 2019, which consisted in myself and the head of the cyber cell”.

The Luxembourg Defence consists of the Luxembourg Directorate of Defence and the Luxembourg Armed Forces, which has its own cyber team.

How close is the link between cybersecurity and cyber defence?

"Cyber defence is part of the cybersecurity work. Cybersecurity and cyber defence have no borders. We have to interact". Ben Fetler describes the interdependence between the Cyber Defence Directorate and the cybersecurity ecosystem.

How beneficial is a well-functioning cybersecurity ecosystem to the cyber defence sector?

"We clearly depend on the ecosystem, because there you find the industry and the required products and services. But we can also offer those services to an international platform because we are the direct link between Luxembourg and the EU & NATO levels."

What are the objectives of the first national cyber defence strategy?

"In 2020 was released the first national cyber defence strategy that intends to fulfil the following objectives - apart from the main and long-term objective of becoming one of the most secure cyber defences in the EU and NATO levels: raising awareness in order to have a motivated and skilled workforce - not only for cyber experts but for everyone, increasing cooperation, the cyber future, integrating cybersecurity in all activities."

What about the Luxembourg Cyber Range that will be launched in October?

“You can compare it with a flight simulator where you can simulate and train different scenarios of attacks in a realistic environment. Luxembourg decided to create a Cyber Range so that cyber experts can train in a virtualised but realistic environment. But not only cyber experts from Luxembourg. Luxembourg wants to create a competence center with it, in order to offer it to other nations, critical infrastructures and operators of essential services. The objective is to make sure that experts get to know each other and are able to efficiently work together in the event of a major crisis. The Luxembourg Cyber Range includes various aspects: training -  extending knowledge in a specific domain and identifying gaps, exercising - trying skills and collaboration in exercises such as Locked Shields, and security testing - testing new solutions."

Watch the full interview here